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HEBREW MYTHOLOGY 

OR, THE 

RATIONALE OF THE BIBLE. 

WHEREIN IT IS SHOWN THAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 
TREAT OF NATURAL PHENOMENA ONLY. 



/ 



BY 



MILTON WOOLLEY, M. D. 



"When we shall be able to bring into Semitic Studies the 
same liberty of scientific criticism which is conceded to aryan 
Studies, we shall have a Semitic Mythology. — DeGubernatis' Zoolog- 
ical Mythology, Vol. ii, p. 412. 



ILLUSTRATED. 




New York : 
THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY, 

28 LAFAYETTE PLACE. 






Copyrighted, 1888, 

BY 

The Truth Seeker Co. 



IZ- ¥ofif 



PREFACE 



HUMAN nature in every age and country is very much the 
same; though modified to some extent by the circum- 
stances o f time, place an d degree of civilization. Hence the gen- 
eral resemblance of all the cosmogonies or creations found in the 
various mythologies of the world — the Hebrew not excepted. 
Impressed by these sentiments, I became strongly convinced that 
all were framed, in all their details, on the same general plan. 
Accordingly, nearly seven years ago, when turned of my sixtieth 
year, I began the study of the Hebrew language in order to dis- 
cover, if possible, the lost key, by whose aid I might recover the 
rich treasure so long locked up from public view. My endeavor 
was, as I believe, crowned with a success as complete as one could 
desire — a success amounting in fact to actual demonstration, as 
many, if not most of my readers will come to see and acknowledge. 

The labor of the study and composition of my work, though 
difficult, long and tedious, was one of love — of love, first, be- 
cause of the intellectual enjoyment experienced in this most 
varied and interesting study of man's nature and motives — and 
second, because of the prospective good which may accrue, as the 
result of my investigations, to my fellow-citizens throughout the 
world. That the foundation of my system is stable, and able to 
resist any attack of criticism, I do not entertain a doubt, as its 
truth is based on my philological analysis of the word Elohim, 
and also on any amount of corroborative evidence. On this score, 
I may defy the assaults of criticism. Among the details of my 
expose, there may be, and doubtless are, some errors, or what may 
be deemed such. These may furnish food for the small critic. 

My foundation, then, being established, its superstructure, if 
at all damaged, may be readily repaired. I trust, however, that 
my exposition will prove in the main correct. The person who 
shall attempt its overthrow will, of course, first undertake to do 
away with my analysis of the word Elohim, and so upset the 
rules of the Hebrew language. His next care should be to ac- 
count for the uniform ease and facility with which my system 



■/ 



4 PREFACE. 

proceeds to unravel each and all, even to the most difficult, 
problems of the Old Testament ; none being omitted because of 
their intricacy. Thus he will find plenty of work, — more perhaps 
than he bargained for, or can hope to execute. 

Science is ever progressive, and but for theology, would be- 
come more general among the people, much to the advantage of 
all. As the case now stands, the very poor, except occasionally 
an individual of indomitable will (and of such come the most 
useful of every age and country), are completely shut off from 
science. The middle, but not wealthy, class are obliged to spend 
all they can spare in church-going, to find themselves at the end 
of a long life, as ignorant, almost, as at its beginning. Only the 
wealthy can afford to give their offspring a classical and scientific 
education. For this inequality of condition, a remedy should be 
provided. If knowledge is desirable and useful, as most people 
allow, its benefits should extend as far as possible to all. How \V 
may this be done ? Let the same amount of money, and time, 
and assiduity, now spent in church-going, in reading and com- 
menting on the myths of the Bible, be spent in seeking out and 
cultivating the improvement of the poor and middle classes — in 
teaching them science, which they can understand, thus elevating 
them in their own estimation, and we shall have done for them 
and ourselves a lasting benefit ; we shall have made them more 
intelligent, more industrious, more useful and better citizens — J 
rendered their homes more desirable, their families happier, and 
the world altogether better. The grog-shop, the brothel, and all 
the paraphernalia therewith connected, would be cast aside, and 
crime of every description would quickly reach its minimum. 
Yes, let our churches be turne'd into halls of science, our preachers 
into teachers of the same, with apparatus for its illustration, and 
people of all classes would flock thither, eager to possess them- 
selves of knowledge, — eager to join themselves in one universal 
brotherhood. 

Ah! then we would have more teachers and fewer priests; 
more educated, and fewer ignorant; more books, and less whis- 
key; more sober, and fewer drunken; more moral, and fewer 
criminal — in fine, more of everything conducive to the ease, 
comfort, and enjoyment of the whole people, and less of misery, 

disease, and premature death. 

M. Woolley, Streator, 111. 
January 23, 1877. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction. - - - - 

Chapter I. Creation, 

II. Adam and Eve, 

III. Cain and Abel, 

IV. Flood, 

V. Tower of Babel, 

VI. Abram and Sarai, 

VII. Isaac and Rebekah, - 

VIII. Jacob and Rachel, 

IX. Jacob and his Sons, - 

X. The Exodus, 

XI. Sanctifying the Ftrst-born, 

XII. Israel's Wanderings, 

XIII. Joshua, - 

XIV. Judges, 

XV. Ruth, - - 

XVI. Samuel, ' - 

XVII. David, - - - - 

XVIII. Solomon, 

XIX. Elijah — Elisha, 

XX. Jehoshaphat — Zedekiah, 

XXI. Ezra, - 

XXII. Nehemiah,. 

XXIII. Esther, 

XXIV. Job, - 
XXV. Psalms, - 

XXVI. Isaiah, 

XXVII. Daniel, - - 

XXVITI. Jonah, 



7 

21 

31 

40 

46 

61 

67 

90 

95 

104 

146 

170 

176 

227 

240 

268 

271 

289 

349 

378 

396 

423 

432 

438 

448 

483 

494 

581 

609 



INTRODUCTION, 



MAN, say our theologians, is naturally religious ; which is 
but to say, man is born naked, helpless and thoughtless, 
his mind being, as it were, a complete blank, but soon capable 
of receiving impressions, the earliest of which being all but inef- 
faceable. Hence the extreme anxiety manifested on the part of 
theologians to make these first impressions. All see and know 
this. Train up a child in the way you want him to go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from it. This is the rule 
hitherto, and still acted upon ; and this the ingenious reader will 
see at once is but a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, at least, as 
to whether they teach truth or falsehood — more likely the latter. 

But to return : When man first made his appearance upon 
this earth is not definitely known — tens of thousands, perhaps 
millions, of years ago. This much is made certain by the rev- 
elations of geology, — the old Patristic chronology can cover but 
a small fraction of the vast period referred to. 

Man, the species I mean, is usually divided into three or 
more branches, termed races : The Aryan or Indo-European, the 
Semitic, the Turanian, etc. The first, which has always been 
the dominant race, gets its cognomen of Indo-European in allu- 
sion to the extent of the territory its members have come to 
occupy — extending from Persia, where it appears to have orig- 
inated, west through Europe and thence to America. This 
Aryan race is subdivided into many groups, the first two of 
which — the Iranians and Indians, inhabiting Persia and India 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

— at an early period probably formed but a single group, whence 
their descendants have sprung. 

Man, though born ignorant, but capable of improvement, 
would at the first learn by experience, afterward by his reason- 
ing powers; but in proportion to the development of these. 
The ascendency which knowledge gives one man over his igno- 
rant neighbor would induce its owner to appropriate its benefits 
wholly to himself. The most striking of the natural phenomena 
by which he is surrounded would be the first to engage his atten- 
tion. In these the designing would see gods or devils, according 
to the season of the year — in summer, gods ; in winter, devils. 
In the Sun, Moon, planets, constellations, etc., he would see 
kings, queens, angels, giants, etc., and these again he would 
esteem good or evil, according to the season of the year. In the 
earth, in the ocean, in the lakes, in the rivers, he would find 
imaginary beings, good or evil, as his fancy might dictate. In 
the clouds he would see horses, elephants, camels, cows, sheep, 
etc., white or black, " ringstraked, speckled and spotted/' ac- 
cording to their form or appearance in the sky, or, as the time 
is day or night, winter or summer. Out of all these he might, 
and probably would, form a history, as of men, relating their 
offices, manners, customs, arts, etc. Peace and war, the great 
pastime of antiquity, he would make to succeed each other as 
regularly as summer and winter. This the Old Testament 
proves. 

Thus a few designing men in collusion among themselves 
(and in the first ages they would be few), seeing their advantage, 
would embrace the opportunity to lord it over their less favored 
fellow-citizens. To perpetuate and confine the power thus 
obtained to the few, secret societies would be formed, more par- 
ticularly on the introduction of writing, either by means of 
hieroglyphics or of the alphabet. In process of time, however, 
many generations having passed away, the key to their allegories 
or fictitious history would be lost. Thus commentaries would 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

originate. These differing as they must, the priesthood would 
become divided, some supporting one view and some the oppo- 
site. Doubt would thence arise, first among themselves, after- 
ward among the people. Hence inquiry ; and this being prose- 
cuted, though ever so slowly, would inevitably end in the 
discovery that their theology or mythology was based on fraud 
and avarice. This result would be reached sooner or later by 
the people — sooner if the language in which their religion was 
expressed be the one spoken by them; later, if expressed in a 
dead and foreign tongue. Thus at the birth of Christ the pop- 
ular religion of the Eomans had almost died out, notwithstand- 
ing " many nations, whose manners were savage and barbarous, 
were civilized by the laws and commerce of the Eomans. And 
by these the benign influence of letters and philosophy was 
spread abroad in countries which had lain before under the 
darkest ignorance" (MosheinCs Feel. Hist, p. 7). Religion 
didn't civilize and enlighten them. Wars and tumults had 
greatly diminished, and, what was very remarkable, their great 
variety of religions and of gods neither produced wars nor dis- 
sensions among the different nations (Ibid, p. 8). Keligion had 
become so low and degraded that not only the common people 
scouted it, but "the ancient sages derided it; after disguising its 
extravagance by the thin pretense of allegory" (Gibbon's Dec. 
and Fall, chap, xiv, near the end). Thus the whole people had 
learned the utter folly of all religion ; and it is not wonderful 
that " the wiser part of mankind," as Mosheim tells us, " about 
the time of Christ's birth, looked upon the whole system of 
religion as a just object of ridicule and contempt" (Eccl. Hist., 
p. 10). Kingcraft and priestcraft were near extinction. The 
people, having fathomed its mysteries, were about to abandon 
the shadow for the substance — theology for science, trickery for 
honesty, idleness for industry, and lying for truth ! 

Here, then, was a state of things which must be speedily 
looked to — or, good-by, priest ; good-by, king. But what was 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

to be done? Answer: just what was done. A parcel of old 
Jewish fragmentary writings were collected together; for as a 
collection, they have not been traced farther back, under the 
name of Ta BiUia, or, The Books. This included, as is supposed, 
the Old and New Testaments, for God, priest, or king, of course, 
had a right to alter his will whenever he found it inadequate to 
his purpose. 

In the first, or Old Testament, something is said of an 
expected Messiah (the anointed, or spring-Sun) ; in the second, 
or New Testament, something is said of a Christ {the anointed, 
scil. Sun) already come; both, indeed, being the same = the 
spring-Sun. The difference, if any, was as to whether the Savior 
or spring-Sun had really come or not. This, then, was, and is 
still, called the Jew-book — the Old Testament part at least. 
Much, if not most, of it was stolen from the sacred books of the 
nations among whom this scattered people sojourned; for "inter- 
course with the heathens had made some Jews ashamed of their 
fathers' faith" (Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. Messiah). Split into 
two factions, the Jews (those so called to-day) embraced the 
opinion that the Messiah, or spring, had not come. Those 
" ashamed of their fathers' faith " adopted the idea that he had 
come. 

Thus stood the dissevered Jews — one faction stationary, the 
other conservative, though inclined to progress. The progressive 
pagans, therefore, if they united with either party, must join the 
latter. To this they were induced at the beck of their priests, 
under their murderer * chief, Constantine, surnamed the Great, 
accepting, at the same time, the scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments, the latter being the offshoot of the former. The 

* Constantino's list of murders runs thus: Maximian, his wife's father, a. d. 318; 
Bassianus, his sister Anastasia's husband, A. D. 314: Licinianns, a boy eleven years old, 
his nephew by Constantina, a. d. 319; his wife, Fausta, drowned in boiling water, a. d 
320; Sopater, his former friend, a. d. 321; Licinius, his sister Constantia's husband, a. i>. 
325, the very year of the Nicene council, when he was organizing the new religion; and 
Crispus, his own son, a. d. 326. 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

term Bible was prefixed to the whole collection by Chrysostom 
in the fourth century. 

Here, then, we behold the humiliating spectacle of a race 
every way superior to all others, casting aside, at the instance of 
their priests and rulers, their national literature, rich in every 
department of science, to embrace the brutal, cruel, low and 
obscene mythology of a race ever scattered here and there over 
the civilized world ; and in every place, no matter where, always 
held in derision and contempt. 

"0! what a fall was there, my countrymen! 
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, 
Whilst bloody treason nourished over us." 

So the new form of religion was firmly established, or, rather, 
the old form was dressed up anew. It was now dubbed the 
Christian religion. Its secret basis (natural philosophy) was 
now safely deposited beneath the idiom of a foreign and dead 
language — the Hebrew. All intellectual progress was checked, 
and the people again brought under the rale of priests and kings, 
so to remain for a long but indefinite period — until the amount 
of light, gathered up in infinitesimal doses, shall become suffi- 
cient to enable them to discern the cheat. 

Ignorance, let the reader remember, is the basis of all religion. 
Says the Eev. S. Baring-Gould : " We find that a condition of the 
first importance to religious exaltation of feeling, is ignorance " 
(Orig. of Eel. Belief, vol. i, p. 357). Indeed, so thoroughly has 
priestcraft and kingcraft (twin brothers) in every age been aware 
of the importance of ignorance in enabling them to retain their 
hold, which they secured upon the people at an early age, that 
they have resorted to every means to conceal the truths of science 
from them, or rather, I should say, to prevent them from coming 
to their knowledge ; for science and religion ever have been, and 
always will be, antagonistic of each other. The two can no more 
unite than fire and water. 



12 INTRODUCTION". 

Hence the continual warfare which has been waged for cen- 
turies — even thousands of years — between Theology and Science 
in which, after the longest siege ever known, the latter is now hap- 
pily coming off first best! And hence, too, all theological books 
abound in parables, allegories and myths to cover up the truths 
which science had forced upon the writers of the various mythol- 
ogies, and so prevent them from coming to the understanding of 
the laity. Our Bible forms no exception to this remark, as my 
reader will come to see in the sequel. The Jewish Mythology 
runs in a line parallel with all other mythologies, whether Hindu, 
Persian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Norse, or any other. 

To become tolerably versed in religion, the student must have 
some knowledge of its principal forms. This the author, present- 
ly to be named, styles the " Science of Beligion," a paradoxical 
term, but true nevertheless. Max Miiller uttered sound sense 
when he said of religion: "He who knows one, knows none" 
(Science of Religion, p. 11.) Thus is the Christian reflected upon 
as being ignorant. However, I will add: He who knows all, be- 
lieves none. 

Let us next endeavor to ascertain, if possible, whether the 
professors, or teachers of the new religion as thus reformed and 
adopted, really believed it, or were sincere in their professions 
— even from the day of its adoption to the present : The Savior 
is represented (Mark iv, 12) as speaking in parables, " That see- 
ing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may 
hear, but not understand." * 

St. Paul says : " For if the truth of God hath more abounded 
through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I judged as a sinner ? " 
(Eom. iii, 7.) 

The apostolic father, Hermes, mentioned by St. Paul (Rom. 
xvi, 14), exclaimed, "0 Lord, I never spake a true word in my 
life, but I have always lived in dissimulation, and affirmed a lie 
for the truth to all men, and no man contradicted me, but all 

* See Isaiah vi, 9. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

gave credit to my words." (Quoted by Kev. R. Taylor, Diegesis, 
p. 45.) 

Tertullian, an early Christian father, born about a.d. 150 in 
Carthage, thus witnesses against his profession: "I find no other 
means to prove myself to be impudent with success, and happily 
a fool, than by my contempt of shame ; as for instance, I main- 
tain that the Son of God was born ; why am I not ashamed of 
maintaining such a thing ? Why ! but 'because it is of itself a 
shameful thing. I maintain that the Son of Cod died ; well, that 
is wholly credible, because it is monstrously absurd, — I maintain 
that after having been buried, he rose again; and this I take to 
be absolutely true, because it was manifestly impossible." {Ibid, 
p. 326.) 

To the same purpose speaks Bishop Gregory Nazianzen to St. 
Jerome : " A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose upon 
the people. The less they know the more they admire. Our 
forefathers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, 
but what circumstances and necessity dictated." (See Volney's 
Ruins, p. 177.) This Gregory lived in the fourth century. 

Says Bishop Synesius, born in Gyrene, Africa, in the fourth 
century: "The people are desirous to be deceived; there is no 
acting otherwise with them. For my own part, to myself I shall 
always be a philosopher, but in dealing with the mass of man- 
kind, I shall be a priest." (Ibid, p. 177.) This bishop, says 
Gibbon, "loved profane studies and profane sports; he was 
incapable of supporting a life of celibacy; he disbelieved the 
resurrection ; and he refused to preach fables to the people unless 
he was permitted to philosophize at home" (Dec. and Fall, — note 
to chap, xx, sec. 5). His request was granted. 

" This book of Genesis," says Maimonides, " taken according 
to the letter, gives the most extravagant notions of the Deity. 
Whoever, therefore, should perceive their true meaning ought 
to take care not to divulge it. It is difficult for any one, either 
from the text itself, or from lights elsewhere afforded, to keep off 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

from a good guess at what it means; but then he ought to say 
nothing about it."* Reference lost. 

So much, then, of ancient and medieval Christianity. I now 
approach our own times. In a recent work, " The Origin and 
Development of Religious Belief," by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould 
(vol. i, p. 232; New York, 1870), may be read the following: 
" To preserve equilibrium, the majority of men must be fools, 
and only the minority sensible, for the economy of society de- 
mands a coordination of manual labor and mental direction. 
Those who execute the manual labor, — building houses, tilling 
the ground, weaving cloth, — are subservient to those who direct 
the affairs of State. The laborer is a living tool." Mr. Baring- 
Gould is a prominent English clergyman, and, of course, truly 
reflects the sentiment of his caste, both in England and our own 
country. 

Thus we find the same Christian sentiment precisely pervad- 
ing every Christian age. The " sensible minority" must and will 
" direct the fools," if they can, and fleece them. The instrument 
which has always been used, and which the "sensible minority" 
purpose to continue the use of, is Religion. Religion — a word 
soon to be recognized as a synonym of ignorance — has hitherto 
always ruled the down-trodden laborer with a rod of iron; has 
ever arrogated to itself, under many names, the government of 
the world. No matter what its name or form, this fiend, Re- 
ligion, has always managed to insinuate itself into every govern- 
ment set up by man ; the result being in every instance loss of 
liberty to the laboring classes, and this loss being, in most 
cases, the consequence of long, bloody and exhausting civil wars. 
So that the " sensible minority," by means of this mighty agent, 
have thus far succeeded in converting our beautiful world into a 
"slaughter-house, drenched with blood and tears" (Higgins' 

*Prof.W. D. Whitney, of Yale College, seems to have acted upon Maimonides' advice, 
in declining to correspond with me on this suhject. He, however, vouchsafed this much: 
U I admire the ingenuity of your parallelisims." Letter to the Author, dated Oct. 19, 1873. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

Cetic Druids, p. 299). For war, thus far, has ever been the pas- 
time of the "sensible minority," or, as the sensitive Shelly has it: 

"War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, 
The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade." 

"Religion and philosophy," says the Rev. G-. Oliver, D.D., a 
learned English clergyman, "were veiled under the impervious 
shade of hieroglyph ical symbols, unintelligible to the profane, and 
intended to lead them into a maze of error, from which it was 
difficult to extract a single idea which bore any resemblance to 
the original truth. These symbols were publicly displayed in the 
temples, beaming streams of light to the initiated; while to the 
profane they were but an obscure mass of unintelligible dark- 
ness" {Hist, of Initiation, p. 73). Such was then, and is now, 
the magnanimity of the " sensible minority." 

"The priesthood of all nations had acted upon the system 
that it was necessary to deceive the mass of the people for their 
own good ; that it was not possible to guide them by the plain, 
open truth" (L. Maria Child, Prog, of Relig. Ideas, vol. iii, p. 
167). "Guide them!" Where? Why, into the great whirlpool 
of ignorance and barbarism, such as the world experienced dur- 
ing the one thousand years of " the dark ages." when priests and 
kings brooked no opposition. Where else could deceit and lying 
guide them? 

And now, my co-workers and fellow-citizens — farmers, me- 
chanics, artizans of all classes and descriptions ("fools" in the 
estimation of the Rev. S. Baring-G-ould and his coadjutors), what 
do you think of the " mental direction " thus proposed to you, 
coming, as it does, from a class of men who never, as a rule, 
perpetrated a useful invention of the smallest moment — who 
never did the least thing intentionallv for the advance of civili- 
zation, but on the contrary have ever taken upon themselves the 
"mental direction" of your race in a way calculated to lead to 
ignorance and slavery, as above conclusively proven ? 



16 INTROEUCTION. 

Where, let me ask you, where had we all been to-day but for 
the great minds and hands which have occasionally, and only 
now and then, appeared as bright oases in the boundless desert 
of ignorance of the past ages, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato 
and others among the ancients; Copernicus, Galileo, Columbus, 
Newton, Laplace, Lyell, Darwin, Huxley and Tyndall among the 
moderns — real philanthropists, who have both thought and 
worked for the benefit of the world ? Was there ever advance- 
ment except at the hands of such men ? No ! emphatically No! ! 
All progress thus far has come from those who have spurned the 
" mental direction " of theological mountebanks and kings; all 
future progress will come from a similar source. 

As all advancement in civilization has ever been in proportion 
to the number of self-directing hands — slow at first because of 
paucity of numbers, may we not hope, from the continual acces- 
sion of numbers, for a more rapid improvement in the future ? 
This, of course, will depend much, but not altogether, upon the 
working classes. If in connection with the scientists, their true 
friends, they work and think, their betterment of condition will 
be made sure. But if they work, and let those who do not work 
think for them, they will surely decline from their present 
condition, which is truly low enough, and become the tools of 
designing men. " The laborer is a living tool," says the Eev. S. 
Baring-G-ould. 

Having truth, and nothing but truth in view, the inquirer 
should have some notion of the means for its attainment. For 
this purpose I know of no better instrument than the law of the 
development of the human mind, as first put in form by the 
French savant, M. Auguste Comte. A knowledge of this law, if 
put to use, will greatly aid the free-inquirer in his search after 
truth: "The law is this: That each of our leading conceptions, 
each branch of our knowledge, passes successively through 
three different theoretical conditions : The theological, or ficti- 
tious ; the metaphysical or abstract ; and the scientific, or positive." 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

Xow every one who has arrived at years of maturity, must have 
observed, that his mind was developed, if developed at all, strictly 
in conformity to this law. In his childhood, he was a theologian ; 
in his youth, a metaphysician ; and in his manhood, a philosopher. 

This law is expressed by its author in bold and prominent 
language, whose purport cannot be mistaken by the reader; and 
although a later and very able writer, Herbert Spencer, affects to 
disagree with the Frenchman, it is merely in the matter of its 
•expression, as the upshot of his argument proves. For, in his 
treatise on Education, he enunciates this same law thus : " Of 
the three phases through which human opinion passes — the 
unanimity of the ignorant, the disagreement of the inquiring, 
and again, the unanimity of the wise — it is manifest that the 
second is the parent of the third." (p. 101). 

It may be remarked that the theological stage of development 
is divided into Fetishism, the lowest and most degraded form of 
religion ; Monotheism, its highest and least frequent form, and 
Polytheism, the form in which it appears in the Bible. This last 
proposition may be objected to, but it cannot be disproved. 

A careful study of many religions, or of all, will disclose the 
fact of their common origin — in natural phenomena ; — in the 
sky, the Sun, the moon, the constellations, the planets, etc. 
Thus, " the sky may be called not only the brilliant, but the 
■dark, the cowering, the thundering, the rain-giving. This is the 
polyonomy of language, and is what we are accustomed to call 
polytheism in religion." (Max Muller, Science of Religion, p. 124.) 

Thus have I, at length, brought Theology and Science face 
to face. The first covers up and hides truth to the degradation 
of man ; the last uncovers and brings it to the people for their 
improvement. "For it is true," says Macrobius, a philosopher 
of the fifth century, " that while the mythologists (theologians) 
stuff the history of their Gods with fables, the naturalists reduce 
their fictions to a rational sense." {Quoted by Banier, Myth., 
vol. ii, p. 183.) 
2 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

As regards my subject, the Bible, I have taken the course of 
the "naturalists," and so have shown in the following pages 
that that sacred (secret) book treats of natural phenomena only. 
It can't treat of anything else, for there is nothing else to treat 
of. Does the infatuated theologian imagine a God ? The idea 
originated in Aries, the first of the zodiacal constellations. Does 
he imagine Bulls breathing flames of fire ? His image is formed 
from the Sun in Taurus. Does he picture to himself a Devil ? 
He obtains his prototype from the Sun in Scorpio ; and similarly 
of all the fictions of the sacred Book, and also of all the world's 
mythologies, by means of which one man wheedles his fellow out 
of his substance, and at the same time of his liberty. 

But it will be objected to what I have written of the twelve 
tribes, that there is a small tract of land called the " Holy Land" 
east of the Mediterranean sea, divided into twelve parts, to each 
of which one of the Patriarchal names is assigned; and hence 
that I am wrong — intentionally wrong. This objection is 
readily met and set aside. The Hebrews never applied the name 
Palestine to the whole country so called, but only to the long 
strip of maritime plain inhabited by their encroaching neighbors, 
and this even is doubtful. Biblically, this name Palestine is a 
misnomer. Neither did the Eoman division coincide with the 
theological name, nor did the Romans have a distinct name for 
the Holy Land. (Bib. Diet., Art. Palestine.) "Soon after the 
Christian era this name took possession of the country " (Ibid). 
That is, I suppose, the country surveyed itself off into twelve 
districts and named them after the twelve Patriarchs — a miracle, 
to be sure, but nothing is impossible with G-od ! 

Note further: At the beginning of Adrian's reign, a. d. 
117, the Gospels had not yet appeared; the world was without a 
miracle; Mary, the bride of Heaven, had no place in history; 
and the proof that Christ had ever existed was too weak 
to overcome, or even to contend against, the skepticism of 
the age. The time to supply additional proof of the reality 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

of Christ was favorable. (Reber., Enigmas of Christianity, 
pp. 57-59.) 

Though all who lived during the alleged time of Christ had, 
by age or the calamities of war, gone to their graves, leaving 
little or nothing concerning him, still the priests entered upon 
the task of foisting the old religion, or Paganism, under the 
name of Christianity, upon the people. They quarreled among 
themselves for centuries, forged books, manufactured traditions, 
and shamefully altered and corrupted the works of the Fathers 
to make them conform to the doctrines of the day (Ibid, p. 61). 
Such, then, was the origin of Christianity ! 

To understand what I have written of this sacred Book, or 
" Book of books," as its advocates would have us call it, a mod- 
erate, not a profound, knowledge of astronomy is necessary. 
This may be acquired from any of the common elementary 
treatises on the subject. To aid my reader further I have 
affixed to this book a beautiful picture of the zodiac, with an 
index and globe. Mastering the details of this he will find but 
small difficulty in understanding what I have written. 

In the space between the two. circles are the twelve zodiacal 
constellations, the exaltations of the seven planets of the an- 
cients (the O being marked e), nodes of Venus, Beth-el and 
Ai=the beginning and ending of the Jewish ecclesiastical year; 
also Dan and Beer-sheba, the latter being the end of summer, 
the former the beginning of winter. The larger circle is divided 
into three equal parts by means of curved lines. These meeting 
by twos at three equidistant points in the inner circle, form an 
equilateral triangle, within which is placed the Sun. 

The spaces, or arcs, designated Shem, Japheth, Ham,, denote 
the three seasons of the year (the Trinity) of the ancients. The 
planets, as designated by their respective characters, placed 
within and near the circumference of the smaller circle, occupy 
their respective houses — marked D. H. = day-house; and "N. H. 
= night house. The whale that swallowed Jonah (the Sun) is 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

placed south of Aries and Pisces. In astronomical maps the 
left hand is East, the right hand West. If, as before re- 
marked, the reader make himself thoroughly familiar with this 
chart, he will derive infinite pleasure from the perusal of my 
work. Besides this, he will be able to comprehend better than 
he now does, much of ancient history, as well as the various 
mythologies of the world. 



THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CREATION. 

/ 

THE Creation embraces all the first chapter of Genesis 
and the first two verses of the second chapter. 

" In the beginning * God {the Gods = Elohim) created the 
heaven and the earth." f (Gen. i, 1.) 

Here the first inquiry of the rationalist will naturally be : 
Who, or what was, or is God? Hitherto civilized (?) man, in 
his supreme folly, has failed to see the necessity of a correct 
answer to this question — who, or what was, or is God? — but 
has blundered along in the gloom of Egyptian darkness, with- 
out knowing, or even caring, whether he was advancing to, or 
receding from the object of his search. Consequently he is 
now, at the end of thousands of years of laborious research, 
as ignorant of God as the veriest savage. 

Who, or what was, or is God? Until we can answer this 
most important, this fundamental question satisfactorily and 

* " The beginning of the historical times of every nation, is described as the beginning 
of mankind." (Abbe Banier, Myth., vol. ii, p. 558.) 

t' v The creation," says Clemens Alexandrinus. "was concluded in six days, for the 
motions of the Sun from solstice to solstice is completed in six months." (Vol. ii, p. 386.) 
The period before which this myth could not have been written may be readily ascertained. 
Thus, the amount of the precession of the equinoxes, since the Sun entered the first 
degree of Aries, is about 45°. This, divided by 50", the annual precession of the equi- 
noxes, will give 3,240. 

"Creation," says Philo the Jew, "is a thing in its own nature movable, but that the 
uncreated God (Aries) is unchangeable and immovable." (Bohn's Philo, vol. ii, p. 343. ) 
By an attentive perusal of this book, the reader will doubtless learn what Philo meant. 



22 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

truthfully, we may as well stop right here; for we must 
have some point of departure — some means whereby we may 
traverse the Red Sea (yam-suph = weedy -sea) of the Bible, 
else all our endeavors will prove fruitless and barren of result, 
as have hitherto all researches of a like character. 

It has often been said that " God is unsearchable and his 
ways past finding out" (Eom. xi, 33). Is this true? Let us 
see ; and while " it is the glory of God to conceal a thing " 
(Prov. xxv, 2) — not everything — let it redound to the glory 
of man to detect both him and his ways. It has been said, 
too, " that it is easier to tell what God is not, than what he 
is." We shall see. In the Hebrew text □"Tl^K = Elohim 
stands opposed to God in the English. This O" 1 "^^ is the 
plural of ni^K = doK which last is a compound of Sfc$ = el 
and pp = jah — the 1 and "> being interchangeable. (See 
Gesenius' Heb. Lex., p. 370.) Uniting these radicals we get 
rV^N — Eljah, precisely the same, bating the Masoretic punc- 
tuation, which Sir W. Drummond characterizes as " a most 
impertinent imposition" (Edip. Juda., p. 191), that is else- 
where falsely translated Elijah. The root "5{^ = el, is con- 
tracted from the verb 7^ = ail, to ?>oll, to twist, and was 
hence applied as a name to the male of the sheep kind, in 
allusion to his contorted or " twisted horns" {Ges. Heb. Lex., 
p. 41). The root |"p —jah, is the short for HliT = jcfhveh, 
literally " he will be," and, being the future of j"|in = havah = 
to be, denoted existence of course. It would seem, then, that 

ni7$$ = e ^°K or H vX = Eljah, thus compounded of 7^ and 
j"p, had reference to the Sun entering the first degree of Aries 
at the spring equinox — the Beginning. The connection of 
the Sun and Aries thus begun, would continue from day to 
day, from week to week, and from month to month, while the 
two remained above the equinoctial line, or during the six 
summer months. Thereafter the two (Sun and Aries) are 
disjoined by the intervention of the Earth, the Ram setting at 
the rising of the Sun. Thus, keeping in view this relation of 
the Sun and Aries during the days, weeks or months of sum- 
mer, we can readily understand why the plural form, Elohim, 



THE CREATION. 23 

is used instead of the singular Eloh or Eljah, which has 
never before been correctly accounted for.* 

God ( 13)? or as the Methodists properly pronounce the 
name — Gawd, is the Hebrew for " coriander seed" because 
of the " little furrows or strifes on the grains" {Heb. Lex., 
p. 177), and was hence another name for the Ram, because of 
" the little furrows or stripes which encircle his horns." God 
also meant fortune, because when the Sun rose in Aries, the 
time was propitious, and men then began to cultivate the 
earth — began to seek their fortunes, f 

These etymologies are, to say the least of them, sufficient 
to lead to the suspicion that the Elohim of the Hebrews is 
only the Sun in conjunction with the Aries of the Zodiac 
during summer, and that God is but one of its many syn- 
onyms. In the progress of our investigations, our evidence 
of this will be cumulative, as the lawyers say, and more than 
sufficient to convert our suspicions into undeniable fact. 
Another very strong proof of my position, which I may as 
well adduce here, is that the ancient Egyptians, as did most 
other nations previous to this beginning of Genesis, when 
the Sun entered Taurus (the cherubim of the Bible) at the 
spring equinox, paid divine honors to the BULL, as Baal-peor, 
or Lord of the opening year. The world (year) by them was 
thought to be a chaos, but inclosed in an egg. " This egg being 
observed by the Bull (the Taurus of the Zodiac) was pierced 
by his horns ; thus, it was said, the Bull created the world 
(year), and by his breath formed the human species." (Rev. 
G. Oliver, Hist, of Init., sect. 3.) The Hindus held the idea 
that this great mundane egg was divided in half; that the lower 
half corresponding to chaos or winter, was male • while the 

* In 1 Sam. iv, 8, these seven summer months are called " mighty Gods;" Elohim 
adidim by the Philistines, or winter months. 

t Some of the ancients supposed Aries was upon the meridian (noon-mark) at the 
great natal hour, when the Sun rose directly after in Leo. This would refer the beginning 
of the year to the summer solstice. (See Si?> G. C. Lewis' Aslron. of the Ancients, p. 308.) 

The Egyptian Neith (Virgo of the Zodiac) reigned inseparably with Aman (Aries) in 
the summer hemisphere. She was the il mother of the Gods," mother of the Sun, etc. 
Being the feminine principle as Aman was the male principle, her temples bore this 
inscription: "I am all that has been, all that is, and all that will be. My offspring is the 
Sun." She, like the Virgin Mary, conceived on the 25th of March, and gave birth to the 
Sun on the 25th December following. 



24 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

upper half, answering to the Creation or summer, was female. 
During the winter Brahma or the Sun slept, but awakened on 
the approach of summer. {Wheeler's India, vol. ii, p. 457.) 

In general we shall find that each myth of the Bible 
recounts but the various phenomena of the year, to describe 
which, or what is the same thing, the Sun as it seems to pass 
over the ecliptic, it is necessary to begin at some certain point 
in it. The author of this myth of the Creation chose the time 
of the spring equinox, which then happened as the Sun 
entered Aries or the Ram. Hence he wrote : " In the begin- 
ning the Gods [Elohim = the Sun in Aries) created" etc. 
The verb bara, here mistranslated " created, 1 ' never meant the 
production of something out of nothing.* Its primary sense 
is " to cut, to divide /" hence this first verse of Genesis should 
read, to bring out the sense the author intended : " In the 
beginning the Gods {Elohini) divided the summer from 
winter." This was the first step to be taken in the division of 
the year. 

"And the earth was without form and void." (Gen. i, 2.) 
Correctly translated, this verse would read : "And the earth 
in winter is dreary and desolate " (tohu ve bohu). In this 
rendering I am supported by the Rev. George Bush, a noted 
American Hebraist (see Science and the Bible, by Rev. H. W. 
Morris, p. 52). This also makes much for my hypothesis, as 
the earth in winter is indeed dreary and desolate — dreary, 
i. e., bloody, in the old sense of the w T ord, in allusion to the 
color of the dead vegetation at this season ; desolate, because 
of the obliquity of the Sun's rays, as opposed to the insolate, 
or more direct rays of the sun in summer. 

"And the Gods said let there be light; and there was light " 
(v. 3) ; i. e.^ the Sun entering Aries at the spring equinox, 

* In Joshua xvii, 15, bara is used in the sense of cutting dotcn frees. Max Miiller 
stigmatizes the idea of a creation out of nothing (ex nihilo). as a u groundless notion." an 
•' ignis fatuits": and that in the word bara •' there is no trace of the meaning assigned to 
it by later scholars, of a creation out of nothing"; that the idea is of modern origin; 
and further, "that to find out how the words of the Old Testament were understood by 
those to whom they were originally addressed, is a task attempted by very few inter- 
preters of the Bible." {Chips, Vol. i, pp. 131-3.) In Psalm civ, 30, bara, according to the 
writer just quoted, bears the sense of tl thou renewest the face of -the earth," which the 
Elohim do every spring. " God " is a mere substitute for '•'Elohim.''' (Nott and Gliddon's 
Types of Mankind, p. 561.) 



THE CREATION. 25 

brought slimmer or light out of darkness or winter — winter 
passed, summer came. 

Thus much, then, as regards the division of the year into 
two parts — summer, over which the Elohim presided, and its 
opposite, styled " dreary and desolate" whose ruler I will here- 
after point out. Overlooking, then, for the present, the latter, 
I will now proceed to the smaller divisions of the former, 
which the sacred, i. e., the secret writer, or his translators for 
him, has denominated days.* 

Before proceeding farther, however, let us endeavor to h'x 
the precise meaning of this term " day." In 2 Pet. iii, 8, we 
learn that " a day with the Lord (summer) is as a thousand 
years." In the cosmogony of the Persians, as quoted by 
Dupuis {Origin de tons les Cultes, torn, iii, p. 21), we find a 
thousand years are as one month,' hence, it will follow that if 
a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years are as one month, a day must be equal to a month. 
Thus is our w r ay made clear, and we may proceed to analyze 
the remainder of this myth as follows : During the first day 
(month March) of summer, God (the summer Ram) divided 
"between the light and between the darkness" (marginal read- 
ing), i. e., he made the days and nights of equal length == 
twelve hours each. He dried the waters off the earth during 
the second day (month April), leaving the ground fit for culti- 
vation. During the third day (month May), he made the grass 
grow, when the cattle are turned loose to feed on it. The 
Sun, having gained his highest point (summer solstice) in the 
heavens during the fourth day, when he made the Sun and 
Moon, ruled the day ; i. e., the longest day of the year. At 
this time, too, God, or Aries, having gained his zenith at sun- 
rise, becomes the Most High God, i. e., the Most High Ram. 
The Moon, being at her full in the eastern horizon at sunset, 
of course gave light by night, i. e., shone all that night. On 
the fifth day (month July), God brought forth insects, creep- 

* "A month is a day and night with the Patriarchs, and is divided into two parts: 
the bright half is their day for laborious exertions; the dark half, their night for sleep. 
A year is a day and night for the Gods; and that is also divided into two halves; the day 
is when the sun moves toward the north; the night when it moves toward the south." 
(Asiat. Research, Vol. i, p. 280.) 



26 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ing things, etc., which we all know nourish best at this time. 
During the sixth day (month August, the ingathering month), 
God made the " beasts of the earth " and cattle, and lastly man, 
i. e., in addition to his daily food, God gave man his winter 
supplies, if he were not too lazy, like some I know of, to 
gather them. Thus it happened that all animals, man not 
excepted, had become sleek and fat, and were, of course, pre- 
pared to breast the hardships of the coming winter.* " Thus 
the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of 
them," i. e., the six summer months had passed away. " On 
the seventh day (month September), God ended his work 
which he had made," i. e., he ripened the fruits which had 
attained their growth during the previous six months, "and 
he rested on the seventh day (month September) from all his 
work which he had made " (Gen. ii, 1, 2). That is, we are to 
understand, God {EI), or the group of stars called Aries 
(" stars of God," Isa. xiv, 13), which was always, during the 
six months of summer, somewhere above the horizon at sun- 
rise, and successively corresponded to each of these summer 
months, in its turn, now went below the horizon, or set in the 
west at the approach of day, i. e., Aries or God got on the 
side of the earth opposite to that of the sun, and so became a 
night constellation. The Sun and Aries, being thus rudely 
disjoined by the intervention of the earth, cease their labor ! 
Thereafter Aries, the poor Ram, gropes his way through the 
darkness of Egypt, or winter, in order to rejoin the Sun, his 
spouse, f at the following spring equinox. Meanwhile the 

* The ancients, not having the wherewith to make themselves comfortable, execrated 
the winter season much more than the moderns. Hence their intense hate of this season 
so often expressed in their records.' Having demolished Ai (the old year), Joshua (the 
Sun) set up an altar in Mount Ebal (bare mountain = the dreary and desolate earth at the 
spring equinox), whence he delivered "the blessings and the cursings" (Josh, viii, 34), 
half the tribes standing on either side of him (Deut. xxvii. 12, 13), "according to the 
book of the law." (Josh, viii, 34.) 

Plutarch writes in relation to summer and winter: " It is alike impossible for any- 
thing bad to exist where God is the cause of all things; and for anything good to exist 
where he is the cause of nothing " (Isis and Osiris. 45.) 

" Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, 
The source of evil one, and one of good; 
From thence the cup of mortal man he fills, 
Blessings to these, to those distributes ills." — Iliad, Book IK. 
i The Sun was male or female, according to circumstances — in winter male, in 
summer female. 



THE CREATION. 27 

poor disconsolate Sun, bitterly bewailing his (the Rain's) loss, 
the great tears rolling down his cheeks (the rainy season then 
began), exclaims with David (Ps. xxii, 1), and our dear Savior 
(Matt, xxvii, 46), "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," i. e., literally, 
" my Ram, my Rain, why hast thou forsaken me f " 

Here let my reader note that Elohim, or the Sun in con- 
junction with Aries, constitutes the summer God or Gods, while 
the winter God is simply El, or Aries as disjoiued from the 
Sun. This will hold good, I believe, throughout the Hebrew 
Bible, except where El has some modifying epithet, when it is 
generally, if not always, equivalent to Elohim. 

In six days (months), then, the Gods {Rain-Suns) divided 
{bara) or measured out the heaven and the earth, while occu- 
pying the space between the conjunction of the Sun and Aries, 
and their opposition. God ended his work, however, on the 
seventh day (month September), when the Sun was in Libra, 
and exactly opposite Aries, and so made up the sacred number 
seven. This accords with the sacred books of the Parsees, or 
Sun-worshipers : " Seven months of summer are there ; five 
months of winter there were ; the latter are cold as to water, 
cold as to earth, cold as to trees ; there is mid-winter, the heart 
of winter ; there all around falls deep snow ; there is the direst 
of plagues."* (Avesta, vol. i, p. 9.) Thus the Gods (Elohim, 
or the Pam-Suns) had their spell, which at first was written 
God's spell, but now, Gospel. ■ 

That the ancients other than the compilers of the Bible, had 
a notion of the Creation as above worked out, many examples 
in proof might be adduced. The classical reader cannot fail to 
recognize the Hebrew creation as identical with the creation of 
the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. But this, it will be 
said, Ovid borrowed from Sanchoniathon, and he in turn from 
the book of Genesis. This is only supposition, however. 

The creation of the Norse Mythology is very similar, if not 
precisely the same. (See Anderson's Norse Mythology, chap, i, 
p. 171.) 

In the Genesis of Berosus we have : " In the Beginning all 
was darkness and water. These generated men with two or 

* The ten plagues of Egypt. 



28 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

four wings and two faces ; bulls with human faces (see Layard's 
Babylon and Nineveh) ; dogs with fishes' tails ; horses with 
dogs' heads, and men with fishes' tails, etc. Before these stood 
a woman, who being split in two by Belus (Sun in Yirgo) 
formed earth and heaven. Having put the world in order by 
creating animals, etc., he last of all cut off his own head." 
(Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iv, p. 364.) 

Here the monstrous animals refer to the constellations. The 
halved woman denotes the year half gone, Belus cutting off his 
own head refers to Aries setting head first at the end of sum- 
mer. 

But of all the cosmogonies known to this. writer, that of 
the Persians, quoted by Bailly and Dupuis, is the most out- 
spoken and precise. Translated from the French of these 
authors, it reads as follows : " In the beginning God created 
the Man (earth) and the Bull (Taurus) in a high place, where 
they abode 3000 years, free from evil ; and these 3000 years 
embraced the Bam, the Bull and the Tivins. After these, 
they remained another 3000 years, experiencing neither pain 
nor inconvenience; and these thousands answered to Cancer, 
to Leo and to Virgo. At the seventh thousand, correspond- 
ing to the Balance, evil appeared." (See Bailly's Anc. Ast., 
p. 392 ; also Dnpuis' Origine des Cultes, torn. 3, p. 21.)* 

What is particularly remarkable in all these cosmogonies or 
creations is that summer alone is definitely described, winter 
being simply alluded to as dreary and desolate; as a chaos, or 
yawning gap (ginungagap of the Norse mythology), or as 
something equally to be dreaded. Now, taking, as I propose 
to do, the Creation as a synonym of summer, is it possible that 
all the ancient peoples of the north temperate zone have drawn 
each its cosmogony from a single original manuscript, as is so 
often supposed and even asserted ? Rather, as all beheld the 

* "Le Dieu supreme cre'a d'abord l'homme et le taureau dans an lieu eleve, et ils y 
resterent pendus 3000 ans sans mal, et ces 3000 ans comprennent l'agneau, le taureau et 
le gemaux. 

Ensuite ils resterent 3000 ans sur la terre sans eprouver ni peine ni contradiction, et 
ces mille rc'pondent an cancer, au lion et a l'epi. Apres cela, au 7° mille reponderst a la 
balance, le mal parut." 

Marco Polo describes a city in Cathay having u twelve gates, three on each side of 
the square, each gate being guarded by a thousand men " ( Travels. Bonn's ed., p. 184.) 



THE CREATION. 29 

same phenomena pass before them annually, would it not be 
more reasonable to suppose that each made up its own record 
of these phenomena to a certain extent at the least? These 
questions are put, not as determinative of this subject, but 
to excite the curiosity of the reader.* All may have drawn 
from a common (extinct?) source, however. 

The Creation, then, was contined to these seven summer 
months ; nor need the royal-arch mason, or mason of the 
seventh degree be surprised or offended on being told that his 
"sublime degree' 1 is founded, as was the Lord's temple, upon 
these same summer months. The first three, let me add, rest 
upon the eastern pillar, or spring equinox ; the last three upon 
the western pillar, or fall equinox ; the middle month wherein 
is the summer solstice forming the key-stone which completes 
this " royal arch " (see frontispiece to Fellows'' Freemasonry). 
' "Faith," says the Rev. Robert Taylor, "is the genius of 
spring; Hope, of summer, and Charity, of autumn — Faith of 
spring, because Faith and Works must always come together ; 
Hope, of summer, because from that point the Sun looks 
vertically down upon the seeds which have been committed to 
the fertilizing womb of the earth ; Charity, of autumn, because 
then the Sun empties his cornucopia into our desiring lap." 
{DeviVs Pulpit, p. 260.) The Gods (Elohim) having gone to 
rest, i. e., having got on the side of the earth opposite to that 
of the Sun, as before related, at the end of the seven summer 
months, there yet remain five months, or 150°, to complete the 
circle of the year. Now, who takes the place of the Gods, and 
becomes the leader during this balance of the year? As the 
Sun leaves Libra, he next comes in conjunction with Scorpio, 
the first of the five winter constellations ; and, as it was given 
to the Scorpion to hurt men five months (Rev. ix, 10), we may 
be certain that Scorpio is the rightful successor of God, and the 
legitimate ruler and leader-up of Satan's hosts — the winter 
constellations. 

Whence, then, the origin of the idea of Satan, or the Devil, 
as we see him depicted in our books ? By a careful inspection 

*Faber says "that in writing the book of Genessis, Moses declared nothing but what 
was then generally known." (Pagan Idol., vol. i. p. 202.) 



30 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

of the Zodiac, it will be seen that the Bull and Scorpio occupy 
opposite points in the heavens. In the Bull we have the 
horns and cloven feet; in Scorpio, the tail and its sting. 
These joined to a distorted human figure, the emblem of the 
earth in winter, give us the form of his sooty majesty as seen 
in print. Behold ! then, the origin of this frightful, but- 
fabulous monster ! Demiurge, i. e., a worker-for-the-people, is 
a term frequently used to designate the Sun of summer, while 
that of Satan, the opposer, or Anti-christ, or the destroyer, is 
equally applied to this same luminary in winter. 

I may further remark that in this Myth of the Creation, 
we have the sum and substance of the w r hole Bible. Every 
subsequent myth, be its name what it may, is but a modifica- 
tion of this. It is true that by the letter, the myths of the 
Bible seem to differ widely among themselves, yet by a careful 
analysis all are proved essentially one — a description of the 
phenomena of the year, or some part thereof. The Rev. Geo. 
W. Cox claims for himself the honor of this discovery as it 
relates to the mythology of the Aryan nations {Myth. Aryan 
Nat., vol. i, p. 6, Loud., 1870). I claim for myself this same 
discovery as regards the Jewish Mythology, and in addition 
thereto the far greater and more important discovery — the 
nature of the Bible GOD ! My position in this last respect, 
like his, is already, in my belief, "established by an amount of 
evidence which, ere long, will be regarded as excessive." 

This, by far the greatest theological discovery of modern 
times, w T ill in the end, I have no doubt, work an entire revolu- 
tion in theological studies, and thus be the means of placing 
the Bible where it properly belongs — upon the shelf with its 
congeners of the Hindu, Grecian, Roman and all the other 
written mythologies of the world. For the good of mankind, 
it should have occupied this place a thousand years ago. 



CHAPTER II. 

ADAM AND EVE. 

ALL nations have had their first Man and first Woman. 
-jLJl- These of the Jews were doubtless derived from the 
Hindus, as the names of their first pair were Adima and Heva. 
(Jacolliot, Bib. in India, p. 196.) 

The dramatis personal of this myth are Jahveh Elohim, 
Adam, Eve and the Serpent. — Scene: the garden of Eden.* 
Here, as in the myth of the Creation, Aries or God, coming in 
conjunction with the Sun of March, introduces Adam {Bed- 
earth, i. e., the dreary and desolate earth) from the winter into 
the summer hemisphere. 'Tis then — 

"Earth swells and claims the genial seeds of love; 
Then, the Ethereal Father (Sun) lord of life, 
Sinks on the bosom of his blissful wife; 
With showers prolific feeds the vast embrace 
That fills all nature and renews her race. ,, — Virgil, Geor. 2. 274. 

Thus the Lord-God (Javeh-Elohim=S\m in Aries) formed 
Man (Ad am = red-earth) of the dust of the ground. But the 
Lord-God, either because the raw material was exhausted, or 
because she was the more refined of the two, was obliged to 
bring the woman out from the man's side ! There is a kind of 
ambiguity about this word "man " it may be well to look to. 
In Psalm xlix, 2, we find in the Hebrew gam beni adam, gam 
beni ish, literally in English — also sons of earth, also sons of 
men, but which reads in the English Bible, " both low (earth) 
and high (men)." The idea here thus suggested may lead the 
thinker to suspect that after all Adam is but another name for 
the earth, which would doubtless be correct. 

* " The Eden story in the Bible is probably another form of the Arabian legend and 
the Persian story of Jima's Paradise in the golden age of mankind." "It was a most 
ancient idea," and common to both these nations. (Dunlap, Spirit-History of Man, p. 
291.) " Jima is an old name of the Sim-god and Saturn." (Ibid., p. 292.) 



32 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

The delightfu] garden into which this Man was introduced 
was planted full of trees, of the fruit of all which he was freely 
permitted to eat, save one, " the tree of knowledge of good and 
evil." But two of the trees were named — rthe one just alluded 
to, and " the tree of life in the midst of the garden." 

Very soon in an interview with him, the woman which the 
Lord-God had created in the garden, told the serpent, in her 
state of ignorance, that they (herself and Adam) were forbidden 
to eat of the tree " in the midst of the garden " (Gen. iii, 3),* 
which was a mistake. The serpent, however, determined to 
circumvent the Lord-God, was careful " the man " should par- 
take of the fruit of the right tree — " the tree of knowledge of 
good and evil." He did not wish him to eat of " the tree of 
life," and so become equal to the Lord- God and live forever. 
This was not his design. He wished to get " the man " below 
with him in the infernal regions — into his possession, in his 
kingdom of darkness. This was his object ; and the Lord-God 
must have been off his guard, or else he must have intended 
from the "Beginning" which I am inclined to suspect, to turn 
our poor old grandfather with his innumerable progeny over to 
the subtle serpent — our great adversary, the Devil, or Winter. 
The result of the eating, however, was knowledge, which most 
people now-a-days fearfully lack ; and the Lord-God, anxious 
lest this poor, feeble, naked and miserable old " man " should 
make a profitable use of his recently acquired knowledge, 
hastened to remove him from his presence ! Before doing this, 
however, he curses all the parties implicated. iSTay, more ; he 
curses the very ground, which certainly showed a lack of con- 
sideration and that he was not in his right mind.f 

Adam had not yet named his wife, because, probably, his 

* The "tree of life in the midst of the garden " was, probably, the harvest which was 
gathered about midsummer, or a little before. 

t The serpent was the first to receive the curse: " upon thy belly shalt thou go," 
Are we, then, to infer that previously the serpent went upright on the end of his tail? If 
so, the curse must have proved a blessing! 

" I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. iii, 15). One would 
not suppose a serpent with his head crushed could bite "his heel" very hard. There 
must be some other than the literal meaning. The Sun's ecliptic, as before remarked, 
was symbolized by a coiled snake biting his tail. His two extremes met at the winter 
solstice, with his head in the direction of the Sun's course. (See frontispiece to Mallet's 
Nortfiern Antiquities.) The head, therefore, following the Sun, "bit his heel," i.e., the 



ADAM AND EVE. 33 

knowledge was not equal to the task. He now calls her name 
Eve — life, "because she was the mother of all living" (Gen. 
iii, 20), which name, of course, was very appropriate, as she 
was not yet a mother at all. The name would have better 
applied to Adam, as the Lord-God got Eve of him ! 

The Lord God clothed Adam and Eve with skins — won- 
der where he got them, as death was not yet in the world — 
and sent him (" the man ") forth from the garden — " so he 
drove out the man " (Gen. iii, 24) — what became of the 
woman? — and placed at the east of the garden of Eden "the 
cherubim and the flaming sword " — why didn't he guard the 
west end of the garden ? — " to keep the way of the tree of 
life." The Lord-God had a " heap " of trouble with " the way 
■of the tree of life," but not, it would seem, without a reason ; 
for, if, in addition to his knowledge, the " man " had possessed 
himself of " the way of the tree of life " he might have proved 
even more than a match for the Lord-God, who, judging from 
the account, was not overstocked with intelligence ! 

Thus much for this senseless legend, taken literally. May 
there not be some hidden meaning beneath this mass of rub- 
bish ? Let us see. In the name Jahveh Elohim, the epithet 
Jahveh is the future of the Hebrew havah, to he; hence in 
plain English, Jahveh Elohim is, " The Ram Suns will be" 
by which we are to understand that the constellation Aries 
(God) will be in Eden or Paradise, or somewhere above the 
horizon at sunrise during the six summer months. Thereafter 
he will be disjoined from the Sun, and thus becoming a night 
•constellation, he is simply El= Aries, and not Elohim, after 
the seventh month (September); hence the number seven is 
reckoned sacred, i. e., sunny, in allusion to the seven summer 

Sun's south declination ended; while the Sun, coming to his southern tropic, "bruised 
his head," i. e., the days began to lengthen. 

"Unto the woman he said: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception." 
Here the earth is likened unto a woman, and is supposed to conceive at the spring equi- 
nox, gestation being completed at mid-winter, the season of sorrow. 

" And unto Adam he said: Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thorns also and thistles 
shall it bring forth unto thee." The earth, having passed into the winter hemisphere, 
produces nothing but dry stubs=" thorns also and thistles." These were the natural 
emblems of winter and "symbols of the divine presence" (Smith, Bib. Diet, Moses). 
Thus when Aries, or God, sets " in the fall of Man (Earth)," he becomes a night constel- 
lation, and may be seen of a clear night in his house — Beth-el — in the zodiac, as he 
monies to his meridian in December. 

3 



34 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

months. Then, too, both he and we will be overwhelmed with 
' the " torrents (rains) of the nether world (winter hemisphere),. 
Sheol," Hell or Winter {Ges. Reb. Lex., p. 136). 

" And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and 
from thence it was parted into four heads " (Gen. ii, 10). This 
was an extraordinary river. " It went out of Eden to water 
the garden ! " It didn't water the garden while in it, for it 
went out of the garden to water it. The garden was in Eden 
(Gen. ii, 8), therefore, when it went out of Eden, it, at the same 
time, went out of the garden. Hence, if the garden was 
watered at all by this four-headed stream, it must have been 
done by some hitherto undiscovered process. 

That this was a most wonderful, a miraculous river, is 
proven from the fact that it has been hunted for time out of 
mind, and found in every region of the earth — from the 
Ganges in Asia to the Nile in Africa ; from the Mississippi and 
Colorado in North America to the Amazon and Paraguay in 
South America. But though everywhere found, men could 
not agree as to its identity ; and hence many have concluded,, 
and Luther among them, that the flood turned everything on 
this earth topsy-turvy, so that the discovery and identification 
of this mystical river have been thus effectually tabooed by the 
Deity forever. Hence, too, has it been concluded that "it is 
useless seeking to identify the river-system of Eden with any- 
thing known at present." (Cham. Ency., art. Eden.) 

Notwithstanding all this, I think the text sufficiently clear 
to warrant me in introducing my opinion among the rest. My 
view of this matter, which, of course, will differ from all that 
have gone before me, is, that this four-parted stream has refer- 
ence to, and may be identified with, the four cardinal points. 
These, separate, become parted into four heads, and go out 
from any locality without watering it; yet the winds returning 
by them bring in the clouds charged with moisture, which, 
under favorable circumstances, is shed in the garden. This 
garden, of course, was located in the north temperate zone, 
including, perhaps, a part of the torrid zone — in all a strip or 
belt of only about 40° of latitude broad. (See Bonn's Straho, 
vol. i, p. 199.) 



ADAM AOT EVE. 35 

" The Hindus [from whom this account was probably bor- 
rowed] imagine that one vast river rises either from the head 
of Siva, or from under the feet of Vishnu [likely from both] ; 
whence, after passing through the circle of the moon [compass], 
where it is divided into four streams flowing toward the four 
cardinal points ; and the Puranics use the very same expres- 
sion as the author of the Pentateuch, to denote the quadruple 
division of the one original river ; but taking the word heads 
in a literal sense, and confounding also these four river heads 
with the four heads of the cherubim [four-faced figures, sym- 
bolics of the four cardinal points], they suppose that its four 
branches actually pass through four rocks carved into the shape 
of the heads of four different animals — a cow, a horse, an 
elephant and a lion. (Faber, Pag. Idol., vol. i, p. 315.) 

These four rivers are not confined to Paradise, or summer; 
they were also the four rivers of Hell or winter. (Ibid, p. 
369.) 

The four river heads of Eden, then, correspond to, and are 
the four cardinal points ; each by its name, actually falling 
into its proper place, as shown by the accompanying diagram. 

In the early ages, the East and the West points of the 
horizon must have first engaged the attention of mankind — 
the East as the first to ap- 
pear in the morning ; the _, 
West as the last to disappear £ 
at night. Accordingly we g 
find the East (Pison = that x 
which shows off' proudly) 



first named ; the West (Eu- Euphrates 

phrates=the region of fruits 

= autumn) is the last named. 

Hiddekel, as all agree, is the 

Tigris, which word means 

an arrow, the symbol of the 

North. Gihon, literally the breaking forth of the Sun, is the 

South, the point whence the Sun is seen to begin his annual 

tour to the North. (Gen. ii, 11, 14.) 

It was upon this river Gihon that Homai, the fabled mother 



FiG I. 



PISON 



36 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

of mankind, " committed her son Darab, the Persian Moses, 
in a little wooden ark," to be picked up and educated by a 
dyer, to whose place (the morning of the spring equinox, which 
is dyed red) the little vessel drifted. (Faber, Pag. Idol., vol. 
iii, p. 183.) 

"And the Lord-God formed man" (Adam). (Gen. ii, 7.) 
Adam (red-clay) was the earth, for it took all the dust of the 
earth to form him. It was said, however, that some little 
remained, which was "converted into locusts." The Eabbi 
Jehuda says that "as he lay stretched upon the earth, he 
covered it completely." {Gould's Legends of the Patriarchs, 
etc., p. 26.) The book Sepher Gilgulim says that when Adam 
was made, " his head and throat were in Paradise, and his 
body in the earth." (Ibid.) This accords with "the man" 
(earth) surrounded by the zodiacal constellations, as seen in the 
frontispiece of our common almanacs, whose upper half answers 
to summer, while his lower half represents winter. 

Eve (havah) is literally breath, and hence life, as being its 
most essential characteristic. Who knows but the summer 
crops are Eve? They are taken from the side of adam, or the 
earth, and are, to say the least of them, great sustainers of life.* 
Besides, we are told that when Eve was " laid beside Adam, 
she resembled him exactly, except that her features were more 
delicate, her hair longer and divided into 700 locks (the seven 
summer months), her form more slender, her eyes softer, and 
her voice sweeter than Adam's." (Gould's Leg., etc., p. 29.) 

Thus early in my investigations, as has been seen, have I 
come to the conclusion that Eden was the summer of the north 
temperate zone. This idea, strengthened thus far, will be, in 
the sequel, established beyond a doubt. Though the word 
eden sometimes seems to denote an indefinite period of time, 
I believe it always has reference to the season of fruits, or 
some part thereof. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, the seven 
times (edens, Dan. iv. 25) he was turned out to grass, no doubt 
had reference to the seven summer months, as "at the end of 



* Philo Judaeus (Works, vol. i, p. 85, Bohn's Ed.) thinks the literal statement that the 
woman was made out of one of the man's ribs, " a fabulous one," and the expression has 
reference only to the man's strength. This, in my view, would mean the earth's fertility. 



ADAM AKD EYE. 37 

twelve months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of 

Babylon "= winter (v. 29). Nebuchadnezzar, or the winter 

Sun, is turned out to grass during summer ! 

But what did the Serpent represent? that devilish, damned 

intriguing Serpent, who so unluckily entrapped our first 

parents with 

"The fruit 
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden.'" 

Who or what was he ? who can tell ? JSTot any of our priests, 
I ween. Turning to Bees' Cyclopaedia, article Serpent, I read : 
" The serpent was a very common symbol of the sun." When 
coiled in a circle and biting his tail, he indicated the course of 
the sun, i. e., the sun's ecliptic. In Benj. Thorpe's Northern 
Mythology, I find " the All-father cast the Midgard [or equi- 
noctial] serpent into the deep ocean which surrounds all lands, 
where it grew and became so great that it encircles the whole 
world, and bites its own tail." (Yol. i, p. 50. See also 
Anderson's JVorse Mythology, p. 382.) De Gubernatis, in his 
Zoological Mythology, vol. ii, p. 396, writes : " The symboli- 
cal representation of the solar year in the form of a serpent 
biting his "tail is equivalent to the monster-serpent who dies 
when his eggs are broken." The monster-serpent here referred 
to is winter, which, as the sun reaches the spring equinox, dies. 
"His eggs" are annually broken by the Taurus of the Zodiac. 
(Oliver, Hist, of Init., p. 85.) The Rev. Thos. Maurice, in 
his Ind. Antiq., vol. ii, p. 196, speaks thus : " The Asiatic 
astronomers assigned the figure of a serpent to the path of the 
Sun through the signs of the Zodiac." * Can there remain a 
possible doubt, then, but the serpent in this myth symbolized 
the Sun's path — particularly the winter portion of it? 

Bearing in mind, then, that the Lord-God is the summer 
Sun walking over the brazen or summer half of this serpent, 
or the portion of the Sun's ecliptic above the equator ; that 
the serpent alluded to in this myth is the winter Sun, travers- 

* The zodiac in Eastern hieroglyphics was "represented by a circle of intertwining 
serpents." (Maurice, Ind. Antiq., vol. ii, p. 196.) This " circle of intertwining serpents " 
probably not only indicated the Sun's ecliptic, but the Ptolemaic epicycles as well. 



33 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ing the infernal regions — Sheol, Hell, Hades, or Tartarus — 
over the lower half of the Sun's path, or that part represented 
by the head and tail of the serpent ; that Adam is the Earth, 
and Eve, the crops of Summer, which last is Eden, Paradise, 
or Heaven, this otherwise foolish legend becomes at once not 
only intelligible, but interesting and instructive. We can thus 
readily understand how, not only man, but the whole animal 
world, was permitted to eat of the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil — good being summer, the season of plenty, and evil, 
winter, the season of scarcity — and even necessarily of that, 
though subject to expulsion from Paradise. We can under- 
stand, too, why Eve, the vegetation of summer, was the 
mother of all living, and why taken from the side of Adam, 
or the earth, by the Lord-God, or the Sun of summer ; why 
the woman (Virgo), standing as she does at the west end of the 
garden (fall equinox), receives the apple (of the Hesperides, or 
the West) from the Serpent (approaching winter) and proffers 
it to her husband, who is in pursuit of her, and why death 
(winter) follows. We can further understand why the Lord- 
God was walking in his garden in the cool of the day (Sep- 
tember) when he found some of his apples were missing. 
Failing to sufficiently clothe themselves with fig-leaves (which 
falling just then become the emblem of the Sun retiring 
south, or of the coming winter — see King's Gnostices, p. 42), 
we can readily comprehend why " the Lord-God made coats 
of skins and clothed them, i. e., the whole animal world, and 
turned them out of Paradise, the bright summer, into gloomy 
winter.* Yet more, we can comprehend why this Lord-God 
placed a guard at the east of Eden, the only entrance, while 
he left the west gate, the autumnal equinox, the only place 
of exit, unguarded ; why the guard was the " Cherubim and the 
naming sword " = the Bull in conjunction with the Sun, etc. 
One thing more in this connection : Why are we told on 
Bible authority that the earth is less than 6,000 years old r 4 
The secret is right here, and this " Cherubim and naming 
sword " will let it out. Thus, the Sun now enters the sign 

* In spring, animals generally, man included, shed, or cast off their winter's garh. On 
the return of the following winter, they put on their new coats made of wool, fur, 
feathers, etc. Man clothes himself with the plunder of the inferior animals. 



ADAM AND EVE. 39 

Pisces about the 19th of February [the birthday of Galileo], 
but does not enter the constellation until the 6th day of 
March." (Bm^rett's Astron., p. 21.) Consequently about 15° 
of Pisces are now in the Summer hemisphere. To these 15° 
add 30° each for Aries and Taurus, and we have 75°, equal the 
sum of the precession of the equinoxes, since the Sun left the 
first degree of Taurus at the spring equinox. Hence 75° -^50" 
= 5,400 y ears = the age of the earth according to Bible author- 
ity as made out by theologians. The Baron Bunsen tells us 
that " it is only from the mythological references to the eclip- 
tic that we can discover what was the earliest historical point 
of contact between the astronomical synchronisms and the 
astral phase of religion. The Bull (To? 1 ) we know to be the 
astronomical sign of spring; but the Sun entered into the 
sign of the Ram at the equinox shortly after the year 2000. 
The epoch, therefore, when the Bull was the vernal sign must 
have been between 3000 and 4000 b.c." (Egypt's Place in 
Hist, vol. iv, p. 354.) 

Thus, the reader will see, my reckoning tallies exactly with 
that of the learned German Baron, as 1875 from 5400 leaves 
3525, equal the number of years before our common era, when 
the Sun entered the first degree of Taurus. There seems to 
be no other w r ay of getting at the age of the earth by means of 
the Bible record. The chronology of the earth, as ascertain- 
able by the aid of geology and astronomy, though indefinite, 
is infinitely greater, and so is unorthodox. 

My reader has doubtless observed ere this, that the word 
Elohim figures altogether in "the Creation" while in "Adam 
and Eve" we have Jahveh Elohim; hence the first is often 
denominated the Elohistic, and the last, the Jahvistic account ; 
and this circumstance has led many learned men to believe 
the two accounts were written by different authors. Such 
may have been the case, but, in my opinion, not necessarily so. 

The names Jahveh, Elohim, Adam, Eve, Abel, and the like, 
Bunsen regards as " purely ideal." (Egypt's Place in His- 
tory, vol. iv, p. 388.) 

" Ihoh, Jahoh (Ahoh) is the name of the Sun-God, Dion- 
ysus or Bacchus." (Dunlap, Spirit-History of Man, p. 225. 



'A f 



CHAPTER III. 

CAIN AND ABEL. 



ND Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she bare him Cain ,? 



(Gen. iv, 1). Aha ! I thought our poor old father 
would again find his wife. In his endeavor to regain " hi& 
lost estate," he met Eve at the east gate of Paradise, still 
within ; for be it remembered, the woman was not turned out 
of Paradise. Only the " man " was driven thence — " so he 
drove out the man " (Gen. iii, 24). Eve remained behind, and 
like Lot's wife, still holds her place in Eden (Virgo in Summer). 

Adam "knew" Eve about the time of the spring equinox,, 
at the very moment when the Virgin Mary " was overshadowed 
by the Holy Ghost," or March wind. This would indicate that 
Cain's birth occurred at the winter solstice, and so was coinci- 
dent with the birth of Jesus Christ. Very soon, however, it 
is said, "Eve again bare his brother Abel" (Gen. iv, 2). Did 
Eve bear Abel a second time ? The language certainly indi- 
cates this. The Hebrew says she added to her hearing his 
brother Abel; and thus we may suppose Cain and Abel were 
twins, like Esau and Jacob.* 

" Cain," it is said (Gen. iv, 2), " was a tiller of the ground." 
The Hebrew says he was an obed, i. e., a slave of the ground 
(Adam). Cain is, literally, a lance, an instrument used in 
hunting in winter, and by metonymy, is winter itself. ~No; 
Cain was not a tiller of the ground ; but like all savages, he 
was a slave, and subject to all the hardships and inconveniences 
of savage life. What kind of a "tiller of the ground" could 
he be whose labors were decreed by the Almighty to go unre- 
warded — unto whom it was decreed that when he tilled it, the 
ground "shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength" 

*It was a common tradition that Eve always bore twins. (Gould's Legends of the 
Patriarchs, p. 69.) 



CAIN AND ABEL. 41 

(Gen. iv, 12), but only "thorns and thistles" (Gen. iii, 18)? 
'Tis true, in Gen. iii, 19, Adam is told he shall " eat his bread 
in the sweat of his brow;" but "lehem" here translated 
" bread," means food in general — such as the savage usually 
gets, and that too by the sweat of his face. Abel means the 
same as Eve, i. e., breath, life or summer. Thus we find Cain 
and Abel are the true offspring of Adam and Eve ; the same 
exactly as one year is the offspring of the preceding year. 
Hence, too, we find that this myth is but a rehash of that of 
Adam and Eve.* 

" In process of time," reads our false version, " Cain brought 
of the fruit of the ground, etc." (Gen. iv, 3). "At the end of 
his days " is the true rendering, i. e., at the end of winter, on the 
night before "the Beginning" of the new year, which was 
at the vernal equinox. At the end of winter, then, " Cain 
brought of the fruit of the ground" — "thorns also and this- 
tles," i. e., the dreary and desolate earth — as an offering unto 
the Lord (summer). "And Abel, he also, brought of the first- 
born of his flock," i. e., Aries, the first of the summer constel- 
lations.f Thus, we see the two brothers, winter and summer, 
met at the spring equinox. " The Lord had respect unto Abel 
and his offering " (Gen. iv, 4). Of course ; and the Lord (the 
summer Sun) was right, for who has not respect for the seven 
fruitful months of summer (Abel) over which the Lord presided, 
and their rich and precious gifts '( "But unto Cain and his 
offering (the dreary and desolate earth), he had not respect." 
No wonder. The Lord-God had previously (Gen. iii, 18) cursed 
the ground so that when Cain tilled it, it would bring forth 
" thorns and thistles." And hence, I think, none of us would 
disapprove of the Lord's preference. " So Cain was wroth, 

* "Dualism of the Deity dates back to a time when the Old Bel was not changed into 
a Bel, the younger (Belus Minor). The Phoenician Gods Belus and Canaan are Cain and 
Abel." (Dunlap, Spirit Hist, of Man , p. 296.) 

All nations had their two hostile powers=brothers. Thus, the Persians had thiir 
Ormuzd and Ahriman; the Egyptians their Osiris and Typhon; the Lydians, their Adrastus 
and Agathon; the Grecians and Roman?, their Mars and Adonis, and the aboriginal Amer- 
icans their Good and Evil spirits. The Devil, or bad spirit, always kills God, or the good 
spirit. 

t Of the summer zodiacal constellations, or Abel's flock, Aries was the first to rise with 
the Sun in spring. It was therefore the first-born, and, as such, was the first to be offered 
to the Lord, or summer Sun; the remaining ones being offered in their regular succession. 



42 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

and his countenance fell," i. e., winter returned, when the sur- 
face of the earth was turned from the Sun, the heavens were 
overcast with clouds and the winds blew cold. 

The Lord demanded of Cain : " Why is thy countenance 
fallen?" "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" 
That is, if thou, by the precession of the equinoxes, get up into 
heaven (summer) wilt thou not be elevated, and so be able to 
produce the offerings thy brother, Abel, now makes — the crops 
of summer? — for the word translated " accepted " means token- 
up, or elevated. This was a kind of irony poor Cain must have 
keenly felt ; for it would require 12,000 years for him to pro- 
cure acceptance ! " But," continues the Lord, " if thou doest 
not well, sin (the Sun's south declination) lieth at the door " 
(the fall equinox), i. e., winter will succeed.* 

The Lord continues : "And unto thee shall be his desire 
(summer will go and winter come), and thou shalt rule over 
him " (Gen. iv, 7). Thus is Abel given over to Cain, as Job 
was afterward given over to Satan. " So Cain talked with his 
brother Abel, as Satan talked with the Lord " (Job i, 7), i. e., 
as summer passed, winter succeeded. The primary meaning of 
the Hebrew word here translated " talked," is " to bring out to 
light" {Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 66); i. e., summer being gone, winter 
came to light — the Sun entered the winter constellations and 
brought them out to light ; made day constellations of them. 
Hence, "it came to pass when they were in the held together," 
at the fall equinox, " that Cain rose up against his brother 
Abel and slew him," i. e., overcame (came over) him, i. e., the 
two sets of constellations (summer and winter) exchange places, 
the first becoming night, the last, day constellations, and both 
in regular succession. The word u slay" does not necessarily 
imply that Cain killed Abel ; he only put him aside for the 
time being ; for the two, like Castor and Pollus, divide immor- 
tality between them. 

" And the Lord called unto Cain, saying, what hast thou 
done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the 
ground " (Gen. iv, 10). The earth had again become dreary 

*The Sun's declination either north or south is 23° 28'; its south declination consti- 
tutes the sum of all the iniquities of the children of Israel. 



CAIN AND ABEL. 43 

and desolate, and the Lord again, as in the case of Adam, fell 
to cursing Cain (winter), as we often do ; and though the Lord 
may seem partial, we will none of us hesitate to excuse his 
partiality ! 

But Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, i. e., 
winter came near its close, when it would be out from before 
(milpeni Jahveh) summer, or the Lord, being between winter 
and summer, and dwelt in the land of ]STod on the east of 
Eden " (Gen. iv, 16), where he saw his wife and " knew her." 
So here we are for the third time at the famous spot on "the 
east of Eden," or summer. It was in this very place that 
Adam knew his wife. Here, too, the Holy Ghost overtook 
the Yirgin Mary ; and here let me say it, though under 
threatenings of eternal pain, that this mythic lady (the Yirgo 
of the Zodiac) was, in turn, the mother, the daughter, the 
sister, the wife of all the Patriarchs {arch fathers) of the Bible ! 
"What," exclaims my reader, "do you mean to say that Cain wed 
his own mother? I answer* — most assuredly, and that, too, on 
Bible authority ; and I defy any one to adduce the first particle 
of evidence to disprove my assertion. Eve is the only woman 
spoken orf by name in the Bible previous to Cain's seeing his 
wife (of course he was married to her some time before) in the 
land of Nod. How, then, could he wed any other than his 
own mother, the only woman in the universe ? Impossible, 
and why not % Abram wed his sister (Gen. xii, 13) ; Judah 
" came in unto Tamar, his daughter-in-law" (Gen. xxxviii, 18) ; 
Lot's daughters lay with their father (Gen. xix, 36) ; David 
lay with Uriah's wife, and on finding her in an uncomely way, 
slew her husband (2 Sam. xi) ; Absalom " went in unto his 
father's concubines in the sight of all Israel" (2 Sam. xvi, 22); 
Isaiah took Uriah and Zechariah,"* two faithful witnesses with 
him when he " went unto the prophetess," to record, and thus 
preserve, the exact date " (Isai. viii, 2, 3). The morals of these 
old Bible worthies differed somewhat from those of our day.f 

* Uriah (aur=h.e&t) and Zechariah (zechar, " to stick in, infigere, of the membrane 
virile " (Fuerst, Heb. Lex., p. 392)=warmth and venereal desire, are surely two of the most 
faithful witnesses that could be had in every such case! 

t Taking the language of the Bible, as I do, to be mythical, it nevertheless shows, as 
language is always sure to do, in any age or country, the true standard of the then ruling 



44 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Cain, then, " found his wife in the land of Nod, on the east 
of Eden." Of course he did. Nod in Hebrew means the 
same as nod in English — a waving to and fro, or up and 
down. It lacks but the terminal e to indentify it with the 
astronomical term node, and doubtless had reference to the 
vernal equinox, or the point where the ecliptic intersects the 
equinoctial line. 

Thus is it forever settled what the Hebrew terms, God y 
Lord, and Lord-God, mean. They are all more or less identi- 
fied with the summer hemisphere ; God having especial refer- 
ence to the Aries of the Zodiac, as the term Lord has to the 
season of summer. The nature of Adam and Eve, of Cain 
and Abel, are equally certified. Adam and Cain denote the 
earth in winter; while Eve and Abel refer to the earth in 
summer. Thus the mark set upon Cain by the Lord is made 
plain and unmistakable ; and though whenever we chance to 
meet him we may be entirely willing to slay him, yet we are 
constrained to let him pass along unmolested. 

In the corresponding passage of the 9th of Ezekiel, we 
find that six men came from the higher gate (the six winter 
constellations, which, at the spring equinox, are all above the 
horizon at sunrise), each having a slaughter weapon in his 
hand. One (Libra) had an inkhorn upon his loins. All 
stood beside the brazen altar (the Sun at the fall equinox).. 

morality. And I may safely assert that, as a rule, the greater the amount of religion, or 
which is the same thing — ignorance, the lower the standard of morality; and vice versa y 
the greater the amount of intelligence, the less there will he of religion, and the standard 
of morality will range higher. To many this may seem odd, hut it is true, as all history 
will prove. The instances which may he adduced in proof of the truth of this proposition 
are very many. One example shall suffice here. This happened toward the end of the 
fifteenth century, near the close of the " dark ages," when the Christian religion was in 
the height of its power, and brooked no opposition. " At the siege of Naples in Italy in 
1495, a new disease hroke out and spread rapidly until it pervaded all ranks. It was 
syphilis." "If contemporary authors are to be trusted." says Dr. J. W. Draper, " there 
was not a class, married or unmarried, clergy or laity, from the holy father Leo X to the 
beggar by the way-side, free from it. It swept over Europe. Its march was equable, 
unbroken, universal, making good its ground from its point of appearance in the south- 
west, steadily and swiftly taking possession of the entire continent, and offering an open 
manifestation and measure of the secret wickedness of society." {Intel. Devel. of Europe , 
p. 496.) 

That this species of wickedness still prevails in religious circles to a greater extent 
than in all others, is abundantly proven by our contemporary literature. St. Augustine 
says this practice of marrying mothers, sisters, etc., " is not vile in divine beings." (City 
of God, b. iv, sec. 11.) 



CAIN AND ABEL. 45 

The glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, or 
ox, i. e., as the Sun leaves Scorpio, the last of the four constel- 
lations assigned to Israel, or Summer, Taurus or the Bull set 
and the summer ended. He of the inkhorn (Libra == the loins. 
See frontispiece in every almanac) now went forth, and set his 
mark upon the winter constellations, slaying, at the same time, 
the setting summer constellations (v. 2-6). 

Note. — Lamech (strong=Samson=the Sun) a descendant of Cain, had two wives: Adah 
(ornamental^ summer) and Zillah (shade=winter.) The latter, like Sarai, had partaken 
of a certain drink which rendered her barren until she was old. when she bore Tubal-Cain 
and Naamah=Winter and Summer. From Tubal-Cain. dropping the Tu, we obtain Bal- 
Cain=the Vulcan of the Eomans. {Gould's Legends, etc., p. 97.) 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FLOOD. 

" When awful clouds descending drench the earth, 
Mimas and Nephilim receive their birth.' ' * 

THIS Myth of the Flood of Noah is perhaps the most re- 
markable of any on record. Traces of it under different 
names may be found almost everywhere on the face of the 
whole earth. 

That this catastrophe, as described in Genesis, could not 
possibly have occurred literally is now generally conceded. 
And, notwithstanding the almost innumerable traditions of a 
flood, scattered, as they are, over nearly all the earth, and 
which are deemed conclusive in proof of its universality by the 
ignorant, science has, during this and the preceding century, 
steadily declared against the literal truthfulness of the sacred 
word ! There is, therefore, no alternative but to class this 
stupendous miracle where all miracles properly belong — with 
the mythological traditions of the semi-civilized and barbarous 
peoples. I shall, therefore, so dispose of it, and proceed at 
once to a critical examination of the language found in the 
sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth chapters of Genesis in relation 
to this supposed event ; in order to show that such language 
never was intended to be taken in a literal sense ; but that it 
conceals beneath the gross letter of the text, a hidden mean- 
ing, which, when brought to the light of day, will challenge 
the admiration of all lovers of truth, while it will put to shame 

* This distich is taken from Samson A. Mackey's Mythological Astronomy, printed at 
Norwich, England, in 1824. It points to the beginning of the rainy season, in autumn, 
when the Sun is in Scorpio, and forms a very appropriate heading to this essay. Mimas, 
the mocker, or Satan, is Scorpio, the first of the winter constellations. He was so named 
because he leads up the winter constellations. In doing this, he not only imitates or 
mimics -the gods, but wars against them — the summer constellations. (See Anthonys 
Class. Diet.) 



THE FLOOD. 47 

the unblushing hypocrisy of priests, the upholders of the lit- 
eral sense of such tales as this. 

Before proceeding, however, let me forewarn the reader 
that Noah is described in the various mythologies of the world 
under an infinity of names. He was the Thoth, Hermes, 
Menes, Osiris, Ogyges, Deucalion, Dionysus, Neptune, Posei- 
don, Jonah or Janus, etc. In fact all the deities of the sea, 
how diversified soever, are referable to Noah. Indeed, the 
Rev. Geo. S. Faber, thoroughly informed as to this, boldly 
declares that " the first sovereign of every ancient pagan na- 
tion will uniformly prove to be Noah." {Pag- Idol., vol. i, 
p. 454.) His character, however, is perhaps more clearly 
manifested under the name of Janus than under that of any 
other of the water gods. Janus had two faces — one of an old 
man looking back on the old year just departed ; the other, 
that of a young man directed forward to the incoming new 
year. So Noah, too, was depicted as having two faces ; one 
of an old man facing backward on the antediluvian or old 
year ; the other, that of a young man viewing the postdiluvian 
or new year. He (Noah) is sometimes shown as half man and 
half fish — clearly denoting what is meant — the earth both 
in winter and summer, the wet and the dry seasons. 

Noah is the Hebrew for rest, and is one of the many names 
applied to the earth, which, by the ancients, was supposed to 
be the center of the universe and at rest. He had three sons:* 
Shem, Ham and Japheth=the three seasons of the year of the 

*In the Hindu version of this myth, Menu Satyavrata figures as Noah; Sherma, 
Charma and Jyapeti are his three sons. These are easily recognized as Shem, Ham and 
Japheth. As in the Hebrew, so in the Hindu, the father gets drunk. Charma laughs at 
him and gets his father's curse — " Thou shalt he the servant of servants; and since thou 
wast a laughter in their presence, from laughter shalt thou acquire a name." {Asiat. Re- 
searches, vol. iii, p. 263.) Here the criminal (if so he may be called) receives his punish- 
ment, while in the Hebrew myth, he escapes and the innocent gets punished. Thus is 
injustice taught in the most effective way — by example. 

Besides this triad, we have many others: Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, of the Hindus; Jupi- 
ter, Neptune, Pluto, of the Romans; Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, of the Greeks, etc. etc., 
whose history is more or less preserved in the annals of every nation, and yet when taken 
separately, "they are each tlw patriarch Noah worshiped in conjunction with the Sun.'''' 
(Faber, Cabiri, vol. i, p. 313.) 

Undoubtedly each of these trios gave rise to the Christian trinity. Indeed, the Rev. 
Geo. S. Faber believes " the Platonic trinity, from which the early fathers borrowed the 
mysterious dogma which is the very corner-stone of Christianity, was originally com- 
posed of Shem, Ham and Japheth." (Cabiri, vol. ii, p. 147.) If this be true, then the 



48 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ancients. Shem (a name) was applied to winter because of its 
unproductiveness. This season embraced November, December, 
January and February. Japheth signifies addition, and de- 
noted spring, because daring this season the days lengthen and 
the crops grow. Spring included March, April, May and June. 
Ham means heat, and, therefore, fittingly represents summer, 
which took in the remainder of the year — July, August, Sep- 
tember and October* (See liawlinsorfs Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 
237.) 

The age of each of these three sons was limited to a hun- 
dred and twenty years (Gen. vi, 3.) The Hebrew shanah, 
here translated years, may with greater propriety be rendered 
days, since its root means simply to repeat, or to do a second 
time. (G-es. Heb. Lex., p. 1092.) Thus the combined ages of 
these three sons will equal 360 years, the exact number of de- 
grees in the circle of the year. 

' ' To these three sons was assigned the year, and each 
Ruled o'er Ms portion of the vassal world (year), 
Into three parts divided; for the earth 
Into three parts had been by Heaven's decree 
Severed." — Bryant's Mythology, vol. 4, p. 102. 

" There were giants in those days," says our vulgar text 
(Gen. vi, 4). The Hebrew is nephilim = -\ fallen ones, refer- 
ence being had to the southern zodiacal constellations, when_ 
" Noah was a just man," i. e., when the Sun was in Libra 
(Gen. vi, 9). These giants were Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capri- 
cornus, Aquarius and Pisces, then below the equator. 

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in 
the earth, and that the imagination of the thoughts of his heart 

trinity is much older than Plato (429 B. C), as these three names, which constitute their 
Trimurti, were borrowed from the Indians. The Hebrew myth of the flood is later than 
that of the Indians, since the curse of the former was put upon Canaan. 

Brahma is the Sun of spring, Siva is the Sun of summer and Vishnu is the Sun of 
winter. (Asiat. Researches, vol. v, p. 254.) 

* Besides " this period, the year was taken at four months, at three months, at two 
months, at one month, and even at one day. (Lewis' 1 Ast. of the Anc, p. 363.) 

Other nations besides the Egyptians, as the ancient Germans, Old Anglo-Saxons, etc., 
made their year to consist of three seasons. The above-named author considers the divi- 
sion of the year into three seasons as the most natural. "The antithesis," says he, 
M between summer and winter is obvious; the revival of nature in spring, after the torpid 
winter is also a marked epoch. But autumn is a less definite season." (Ibid, p. 11.) 

t This word occurs in the distich at the head of this article. 



THE FLOOD. 49 

was only evil continually " (Gen. vi, 5). Here we have a trans- 
lation as faulty as it can well be. Correctly rendered, it w^ould 
read : "And the Lord (Jahveh, not JElohim) saw that the wick- 
edness of the Man (Q"J{$n? i. e., Aquarius, for the article ^ — the 
in the original, shows that a particular Man is referred to) was 
great in the earth, and that the purpose of his thoughts was 
only evil every day." The meaning of the text is thus made 
clear. The Lord seeing the Sun descending in his ecliptic 
toward " the man " (Aquarius), thought the Man was pulling 
the Sun downward to Hell, day by day, and, of course, believed 
" the Man's " intentions " were only evil every day ;" and, 
indeed, the Lord's fears seemed well grounded, for it w^ould be 
a shocking thing, according to appearances, should the Sun in 
his downward course to the bottomless pit, never stop to return 
to the summer hemisphere again. In consequence of this 
threatened danger, we are told (Gen. vi, 6) the Lord repented 
that he had made " the Man " (the article is still present in the 
Hebrew), and scoffers, who know not the Lord, have thought 
him silly in this ; but, let me say, it must have seemed a terri- 
ble tiling to the Lord, when he. saw the earth (which sympa- 
thizes with the Sun), with its countless myriads of living 
creatures, the work of his own hands, being tumbled down to 
Hell at the rate of, as astronomers tell us, 1,639,000 miles a 
day, or 19 miles a second ! 

" But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord " (Gen. vi, 
8). Yes ; Noah (the earth) had been basking in the " glory 
of the Lord " (sunshine) during the preceding six months, and 
was now come down to the end of summer, loaded with an 
interminable variety of fruits for the support of the vast 
menagerie which would accompany him in the ark (winter) 
during his perilous voyage. Truly, indeed, was it said : 
"Noah found grace (the summer crop) in the eyes of the 
Lord." 

"But the earth was corrupt before God" (Gen. vi, 11). 
Truly translated, this sentence would read : "And the earth 
was cast down before God" i. e., the earth and Aries were in 
conjunction, and the Sun rose in Libra. (Compare on the 
zodiac?) 

4 



50 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" Noah was a just man ; perfect in his generations ; Noah 
walked with God" (Gen. vi, 9). Noah (earth), being at the 
autumnal equinox where the days and nights are equal in 
length, was thence " a just man." In coming to this equinox, 
he ended the Jewish civil year,* hence perfect in his genera- 
tion, or circle, for, this last is the meaning of the Hebrew word. 
Again, being in conjunction with Aries, he " walked with 
God." • 

Thus, by a combination of circumstances, the time when 
Noah walked and talked with God concerning the ark (winter), 
is fixed at or near the fall equinox. Dr. Stukely, an eminent 
English divine, wrote in 1730 : "According to the calculations 
I have made of this matter, I find that God Almighty ordered 
Noah to get the creatures in the ark on Sunday, the 12th day 
of October, the very day of the autumnal equinox that year." 
This (quoted by him) Buckle thinks is " remarkably exact con- 
cerning a subject of which nothing is known." {Civil, in 
Eng., vol. i, p. 570.) My solution of this grand enigma will 
suggest that the learned divine might have known whereof he 
affirmed, f 

" Make thee an ark of gopher wood" (Gen. vi, 14). The 
ark (Teba, something " hollowed out." See Fuersls Heb. 
Lex., in voce) seems to have indicated a part of a circle, and 
was often represented by the crescent moon. It doubtless typi- 
fied the winter portion of the year. The material — gopher 
wood, an evergreen, emblem of winter — out of which it was 
made, likewise favors this idea. As the year was made up of 
three seasons, so the ark' consisted of three stories — "lower, 
second and third." The one window was "above" = the 
canopy of heaven. The single door (entrance) was in its side = 
the fall equinox. The gopher wood, says Gesenius, was " pitch- 

* The sacred year of the Jews began at the spring equinox; the civil year, at the fall 
equinox. 

t The learned Jacob Bryant says the precise time, in his judgment, when Noah 
entered the ark, and when the flood came, " was on the 17th day of Athyr, when the Sun 
was in Scorpio." (Anc. Myth., vol. iii, p. 44.) 

In the case of the Argonauts, their ship was stranded among the Syrtes of Africa, i. e., 
in the deserts of the Southwest, or at the beginning of winter. To proceed, twelve men 
were obliged to bear it upon their shoulders until they came to the river Triton (literally 
third Sun). This, counting from the end of each of the three seasons, would bring them 
back to the spring equinox. (Ibid.) 



THE FLOOD. 51 

wood " {Lex., p. 201). This makes a nice blazing fire, afford- 
ing both light and heat — the very thing for a savage people 
in winter. From its abundant heat, and the season in which 
it was used, this kind of fire doubtless came to be styled Hell- 
fire, i. el, winter -jure ; hell being the old high German for hole 
— the hole or cave in which the Sun seems to sojourn during 
the winter months. 

God directed that the ark should be 300 cubits long, 50 
wide and 30 high. The astronomical cubit of the ancients 
was equal to two degrees of a circle {Bohrts Strabo, vol. i, p. 
116). But the sacred (secret) numbers of the Bible being 
generally multiples or fractional parts of the true numbers, are 
often difficult of comprehension. If the subject be sufficiently 
recondite to seal the eyes of the uninitiated, the true numbers 
are then used ; otherwise they are disguised as above indicated 
and proved in my account cf the " Creation." Let us here sap- 
pose the *$* Af and ¥• w e will then have 150, 25 and 30 
as the result. The 150 will equal the number of degrees 
answering to the five months (150 days) during which the 
flood lasted (Gen. vii, 24). The 25 will equal nearly* the 
Sun's south declination, and the 30 will correspond to the 
latitude of the place! Thus we obtain the exact dimensions 
of this ark of Noah. Hence, too, the reason why the Egyptians 
painted the ark in the form of the new moon. Having thus 
constructed the ark according to God's directions, ]N"oah entered 
it with his family f (the whole animal kingdom) and provisions 
(the summer crops). " In the 600th year $ of his life (alluding 
probabty to the previous six months), in the second month 

* The obliquity of the Sun's ecliptic in the time of the great Hindu astronomer Meya, 
is said to have been 24°. (Hicjqins 1 Anacalyps, vol. i, p. 273.) 

t That is, himself and wife, with his three sons and their wives. Now who was Noah's 
wife? Who knows? Perhaps the following, from Epiphanius on Heresies, will throw a 
little light on this obscure subject. He says the name of Noah's wife was Barthenos, 
which, changing the B for P, which is allowable, becomes Parthenos, the Greek word for 
Virgin, the name of a constellation in the zodiac, and of the mother of our Savior 
(Quoted by Dupuis, vol. iii, pt. 2, p. 108.) 

% This 600 years was an astronomical cycle, "• common to the whole north of Asia." 
(Bunsen, Egypt, vol. iii, p. 407.) This same author tells us: "The intercalation of an 
extraordinary lunar month of 29 or even 30 days, every 600 years, produced on the xohole a 
closer approximation between the current year and the tropical than the Julian inter- 
calation " (Ibid, p. 406.) 

Josephus thinks men were permitted to live 600 years that they might make " astro- 
nomical and geometrical discoveries." (B. 1, 3, 9.) 



52 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

(counting from the fall equinox), the 17th day of the month, 
entered .Noah into the ark,* and the Lord shut him in" (Gen. 
vii, 16). Yes ; that's so — " the Lord shut him in." God 
(Aries) couldn't do it, for God and Noah were walking together 
in the ark, i. e., they were both below the equinoctial line in 
the winter hemisphere. The Lord, therefore, i. e., the summer 
Sun, generously stoops from his lofty height (summer solstice), 
comes down to the western or fall equinox, and shuts them, 
God and Noah, into the ark = winter.f 

The discrepancies as to the manner in which the animals 
entered the ark by twos, sevens, etc., may be passed by as of 
little consequence ; they having reference to them as gregarious 
or otherwise. We may remark, however, that the warning 
voice of God is the same to-day as then : Get ready for winter, 
says God or the Ram, as he leaves the upper hemisphere, 
Eden, Paradise or summer, and he will be obeyed, or the 
neglect will be punished accordingly. 

" And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty 
nights" (Gen. vii, 12). 

Now it happens, and curiously enough too, that the very 
next month after the Lord had shut Noah and his companions 
in the ark, was called Bui, in Hebrew ; in English Rain, be- 
cause of the heavy rains it brings. The word mabul, here 
translated "flood" is by grammatical construction, a participle 
of but, to rain, and should have been translated raining, as 
having reference to the rainy season, rather than flood, which 
simply means the flowing of water in a swollen stream, or river. 
Here, then, we have another of the many proofs that this 
legend did not originate in Egypt, which is comparatively a 



* "The entrance into the ark was considered as a descent into Tartarus (Hell); the 
liberation from it was deemed a passage into Elysium (Heaven)." (Faber, Pag. Idol., vol. 
i, p. 374.) 

t " Typhon (Hill-Sun = Lord) constructed an ark of curious workmanship. Into this 
Osiris (the Sun) entered, and was shut up by Typhon. This was the same Deity that shut 
Noah and his family into the ark." (Bryant, vol. iii, p. 168.) "The ark was spoken of 
by the mythologists as the mother of mankind." (Ibid.) So was the earth spoken of as 
the mother of mankind, and truly too. " On the return of Osiris to Egpyt, Typhon laid 
a stratagem for him, and contrived, in the midst of a feast (the ingathering), to shut him 
up in a chest which exactly fitted his body. This took place on the 17th day of the month 
\thyr, when the Sun was in Scorpio." (Prichard's Egypt. Myth., p. 58.) Osiris, after 
escaping, returns to Egypt (winter) every year in autumn. 



THE FLOOD. 53 

rainless country,* but in some district where they have but two 
seasons, the wet and the dry, as in Hindustan, or India ; and 
this is now coming into general belief. 

Though it rained but " forty days and forty nights," " the 
w T aters prevailed, and did not abate from off the earth until 
after the end of one hundred and fifty days," = the rainy season 
in either hemisphere, and corresponding in the northern, to 
the months October, November, December, January and Feb- 
ruary, while the Sun is below the equator. 

The state of the weather during this season is graphically 
described by Dante in his Inferno, Canto vi, where he enters 
the third circle — 

' ' Where rain 

Accursed — heavy — cold — eternal flows ; 

No change — no respite in this dread domain. 

Dark water tumbled through the gloom profound, 

With snow and hail terrific; whence arose 

A noisome stench from all the putrid ground." 

" Fifteen cubits and upward did the waters prevail ; and the 
mountains were covered " (Gen. vii, 20). The ancient cubit, 
as before remarked, was equal to two degrees of latitude. The 
" fifteen cubits and upward," will therefore indicate a latitude 
of a little more than thirty degrees north of the equator, where 
this legend was got up. Reference is had by the term moun- 
tains to the slope of the earth from the equator to the poles ; 
also, to the climatal divisions of the earth's surface, according 
to the views of the ancients. (See Tower of Babel.) 

" But God (why not the Lord as well) remembered Noah 
and all that were with him in the ark; and God (Aries nearing 
the spring equinox) made a wind (the S.W. monsoon) to pass 
over the earth, and the waters were assuaged " (Gen. viii, 1), 
i. e., the rainy season passed away. 

" And the ark rested in the seventh month (counting from 
the fall equinox) in the seventeenth day of the month upon the 

*This is true as a rule, though rain in small quantities has occasionally fallen during 
the historic period, and this only when the vallies were overflown with water. This is 
attested by many authorities: by Plutarch, Herodotus, etc. More anciently, however, 
there must have been heavy rains, as shown by the deep ravines which are furrowed into 
the earth. More recently, owing to the planting out of millions of trees, Egypt is more 
frequently watered by showers of rain. 



54 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

mountains of Ararat, or terra sancta, — in English, sunny 
land, at the vernal equinox, just five months, to a day, from 
the time Noah and his family entered the ark, and the exact 
time required to bring the ark up to this holy, i. e., sunny, spot 
(Gen. viii, 4). 

" The tops of the mountains," however, had been previously 
seen at the winter solstice on the first day of the tenth month 
(reckoning from the previous spring equinox), when the days 
begin to lengthen (Gen. viii, 5). Forty days* after this " Noah 
opened the window of the ark," and sent forth a raven, which 
not being a bird of passage, of course, " went to and fro," 
wherever it chose, "but returned not unto him again." He 
also sent forth a dove, which, being a bird of passage, and find- 
ing " no rest for the sole of her foot," returned to the ark, i. e., 
to a warmer clime.f Migratory birds, of which the dove is 
here taken as the type, retire south in autumn, and return in the 
spring; following God. (Aries) both ways in their journeyings. 
Doubtless it was from this circumstance that the dove came to 
be esteemed a sacred bird and an emblem of the Holy Ghost, 
March wind, or of the spring monsoon. The dove also sym- 
bolized the seven summer months, or Paradise, because it 
remains with us during the seven months of summer. (Did- 
ron's Christian Iconography, p. 120.) 

Sometimes, as all have witnessed, the dove leaves the ark 
(the South) rather early, when she is obliged to return, like 
Noah's, to the ark, but when she comes forth " bearing an 

* This " forty days " was the season of Lent (length), which comes between the winter 
solstice and the spring equinox, when the days are growing longer, and the nights shorter; 
when the sins (Sun's S. declination) of the world (year) are being purged off, and come to 
nought (0) as the Sun reaches the equator. This was the purgatory of the ancients, 
during which a fast was kept, and is still kept by many of the moderns, in imitation of 
nature, to purge off their sins ! The last month of the year, and the one more particularly 
observed was named February, from februare, to purge ; because, at the end of this mouth 
the Sun was found at the spring equinox; and having no declination, his sins are all gone. 

The ancients held two festivals at opposite points of the ecliptic; one. the anagogia, 
or going-vp of the Sun, at the spring equinox (this was the passover of the Jews); the 
other the katagogia. or going-down of the Sun, at the fall equinox; this was the ingather- 
ing of the Jews. 

This " forty days " was also styled by the Alchemists a '.' philosophical month." (Bees' 
Cyclopaedia, art. Month.) 

t The Dove's station was near Purgatory, i. e., near the spring equinox, at which time 
she returns to us, the inequalities of the days and nights having been purged off. (Paber, 
Pag. Idol, vol. 3, p. 343.) 



THE FLOOD. 55 

olive leaf plucked off," we know of a certainty that spring has 
indeed come.* 

It has often been charged that there are many discrepancies 
as to the dates found in this myth. This comes from a mis- 
understanding of its import. On a close examination I con- 
fess my inability to find any. It is true, there is a seeming 
confusion; but, with a full understanding of the subject, they 
are all readily and fully reconciled. The reckonings are from 
both equinoxes; consequently a little attention to this circum- 
stance will enable the reader at once to reconcile the difficulty 
as to the months. Thus the dates recorded in the eleventh 
verse of the seventh chapter and the fourth verse of the eighth 
chapter are evidently reckoned from the fall equinox. Those 
found in the fifth, thirteenth and fourteenth verses of the eighth 
chapter are as evidently reckoned from the spring equinox ; that 
of the fifth verse being antediluvian, while those of the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth verses are postdiluvian, the interval 
being about a year. If we add the date of the fifth verse, the 
forty plays of the sixth verse, the seven days between the send- 
ing forth of the raven and the dove, and the two " other seven 
days " of the tenth and twelfth verses, we will obtain the date 
of the thirteenth verse nearly. Thus are the days disposed of, 
and all the dates made to agree. 

In the thirteenth verse, eighth chapter, we are told " the 

face of the earth was dry " on the first day of the first month, 

but we learn from the fourteenth verse of the same chapter 

that the ground was not dry until the following month, April, 

which corresponds to the second day or month of the " Creation." 

* When God sets in the West in autumn, the dove disappears from among us, follow- 
ing God into the South. When God comes back from the South (Hab. iii, 3) and again 
rises with the Sun, the dove reappears among us. Thus it was that the dove came to be 
the emblem of the Sun of Man (of the earth), and also of the Holy Ghost (Sun-wind of 
March=S.W. monsoon), because then these three all appear at the spring equinox to- 
gether; and we cannot speak of any of them without thinking of the other two. If we 
speak of the Son of Man we speak of the luminary which gives light to the earth: if we 
speak of the Holy Ghost we speak of the spring monsoon; and if we speak of the heavenly 
(summer) Dove we equally speak of the spring, or the mild season of the year, when the 
Dove is with us. God, or the Sun in Aries, the Holy Ghost, or Zephyrus, and the Dove 
are all one, because they come simultaneously in spring, remain with us during summer, 
and depart together in autumn. They constitute a tiinity in unity, as the three seasons 
are one in the year. " The Dove caught the first rays of the dawn and the last rays of the 
setting Sun." (Didron's Christ. Icon., p. 439.) 



56 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

In the second month, then, on the twenty-seventh day of 
the month, Noah (having completed his six hundredth year)* 
and his family went forth from the ark by the command of 
God (Aries), the same as we still do every spring. Now, be 
it remembered that the ancients were directed in all their agri- 
cultural pursuits by the indications of the stars. Thus, when 
the Sun rose in Aries, i. e., when the Sun came forth from the 
ark, or southern hemisphere, they knew spring had come, and 
they might begin their season's work. God enters the ark 
with Noah every fall, and comes forth with him the following 
spring ; let us all observe his ways and obey his commands ! 

About this time (spring equinox) we observe (Gen. ix, 11) 
a covenant was made between God (Aries) and Noah (the 
earth) : and as a token, or sign, that this covenant was made, 
God set his bow in the cloud. Now why was the rainbow the 
sign that the covenant was made ? What are the conditions 
of the rainbow, and why don't we see it as often in the winter 
as in the summer ? And what was this covenant here so par- 
ticularly referred to — a covenant made between God and 
Noah, between Aries and the Earth? Answers which will 
prove satisfactory to all who think, can be made to all these 
questions. All know, upon the least reflection, that to see 
a rainbow, the Sun and the rainbow must be opposite each 
other, and the beholder between the two ; and that the Sun 
must not be elevated above a certain angle — equal to the 
semi-diameter of the bow — in the sky. Manifestly, then, 
these conditions are oftenest fulfilled during summer, the 
season of showers. Consequently at the beginning or winding 
up of the first shower in spring, if the conditions are right, 
God (Aries) will set his bow in the cloud ; and it is this first 
bow which puts him in mind of his covenant. Covenant, 
compounded from the Latin con— together and venio—to come, 
means a coming together of two or more things. Thus the 
" Covenant " is made between God and Noah when the Sun 
comes to the spring equinox ; for then the Sun is directly be- 
tween God, or Aries, and Noah, or the Earth. Thus, in the 
figure, we have the relative positions of these three heavenly 

* Higgins 1 Anacalypsis, vol. i, 264. 





THE FLOOD. 57 

FIG. 2 + 




4 



bodies (1. God ; 2. Sun ; 3. Noah) at the spring equinox. 
Aries is east of the Sun, and rises head first ; the Earth is west 
of the Sun in Libra, 4. 

Why we seldom see a rainbow in winter is because the 
necessary conditions are rarely fulfilled. The only instance 
within my recollection is that of the rainbow seen in this place 
(Livingston county, Illinois,) about nine o'clock on the morning 
of December 23, 1871. This was preceded during the night 
before by a heavy shower of rain, accompanied by sharp light- 
ning and loud, crashing thunder. 

u And Noah began to be an husbandman ; and he planted 
a vineyard ; and he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and 
he was uncovered in his tent " (Gen. ix, 20). 

Ah ! here we have another clew as to Noah's identity. He 
was during summer the heathen Dionysus or Bacchus. And 
Noah, Dionysus or Bacchus was drunken. As there is scarcely 
a nation or tribe of people on the face of the earth, civilized or 
savage, but contrives in some way to get drunk, but more par- 
ticularly at the season of the year here referred to, we cannot 
but feel that the language of the holy text, " and Noah was 
drunken," is exceedingly appropriate. But Noah or the earth 
was not only morally but physically drunken.* He had been 
whirled around so unceasingly in his journey to the nether 
regions, that his head had become dizzy ; and having been 
shorn of his harvests, his verdure and his fruits, he fell down 
naked — "uncovered in his tent." But Ham, the father of 
Canaan, seeing the nakedness of his father, instead of covering 
him, as a dutiful son should do, i. e., if he could, goes off and 
tells his brethren without. Poor Noah ! as the ends of the 
world (year) were upon him, he should have taken heed lest 
he fall (1 Cor. x, 11). 

* li Drunken, but not with wine" (Isa. li, 21). 



53 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

But Shem and Japheth, like dutiful sons, as they were, 
took a garment (the snow of the one and the verdure of the 
other) and, so very modest were they, walked backward to 
cover their father's nakedness. No sooner, however, had Noah 
awakened from his wine and knew — for his two elder sons 
had taken good care to tell him — what his youngest son had 
done to him (which was just nothing), than he, like his 
great exemplar, God, fell to cursing, and like many who have 
but lately been aroused from their wine, was so much out of 
sorts, that he cursed one wholly innocent, one who had had 
nothing to do with the nakedness consequent on his grand- 
father's drunken rout ! It is entirely probable that as Ham 
had absconded, and could not be come at, Noah cursed the 
next of kin (Canaan),* who was within his grasp, and so 
vented his spite. This is entirely in keeping with the morality 
of savages, and I may add without departing widely from the 
truth, that this same feeling is not often found wanting among 
a class of people who style themselves Christians ! 

I must observe, however, much to the credit of poor Ham, 
that, as he was the departing summer, all he could do, for he 
must go on, he could not turn back, was to inform his two 
brothers who were behind, of their father's unhappy, not to 
say disgraceful, condition. But these two brothers, like many 
pious brothers now-a-days, taking advantage of his absence, 
instead of giving poor Ham credit for what he had done, set 
the old gentleman 'against their defenseless brother, by telling 
unseemly stories about him.f 

But why did these brothers walk backward to cover their 
father's nakedness? Because, by the geocentric hypothesis, 
the motion of the stars composing their constellations is retro- 
grade with regard to the earth. 



* Ham had four sons, of whom Canaan was the yovngest. Ham being the four 
months of summer. Canaan, the last, would correspond to Scorpio. This fourth part of 
Ham will he noticed in connection with the Tower of Babel. Scorpio was always the 
accursed sign. 

t It is thought by some that Noah, while in his state of intoxication, was deprived of 
his virility. If so, it is no wonder the old man was so angry when he awoke. The sacred 
text, too, seems to favor this idea, as Noah lived 350 years after that, and had no more 
children .' Canaan was suspected to have committed this irreverent act, and was punished 
in consequence. (Faber's Pag. Idol., vol. i, p. 255.) 



THE FLOOD. 59 

" God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the 
tents of Shem " (Gen. ix, 27). 

Correctly translated, this verse would read somewhat as 
follows : " God shall set Japheth loose, when he will let him- 
self doion into the tents of Shem." Allusion is here made to 
the precession of the equinoxes, by reason of which, the seasons 
will be made, in time, to exchange places; spring (Japheth) 
will take the place of winter (Shem); winter, of summer ; and 
summer (Ham), of spring. God, or Aries, is made the agent, 
because the precession is reckoned from that constellation. 
Thus, at every revolution of the earth around the Sun, the 
equinox of spring (with the other cardinal points of course) is 
moved backward about 50" of a degree, or about 100 rods in 
the ecliptic. This, though a recession, was styled a precession 
of the equinoxes, because of the supposition that the Sun 
moved, and not the earth. 

''And Canaan shall be his (Japheth's) servant " (Gen. ix, 
26), i. e., Japheth having taken the tents of Shem, in manner 
above indicated, Canaan, in the absence of Ham, shall in turn 
take the tents of Japheth, and so become his servant. After- 
ward he will succeed to the tents of Shem, for he was to serve 
both (Gen. ix, 25). 

Thus have I gone through this most marvelous myth of the 
Bible (hitherto unexplained and given up as inexplicable), and 
pointed out the true and rational solution of every considerable 
circumstance in it. I have shown, I think, conclusively, that 
it was elaborated from the economy of the heavens and the 
earth, and in strict accordance with the principles of astronomy 
as then understood. My object has not been to derogate in 
the least from the authority of the sacred (secret) word, but to 
confirm it, by removing from it a mass of rubbish which time 
has thrown about it, and to enucleate, so to say, the bright and 
priceless jewel within concealed.* 

* To show that all the phenomena of the Flood accompanied the exile of Rama, I 
quote the following passage of the Bamayana, from J. Talboys Wheeler: " All the ladies 
of the royal household were filled with distress, like cows who have been bereft of their 
young. The priests who served the sacred fire made no oblation to the gods; the house- 
holders prepared no food; the moon forbore to shine; the sun disappeared while it was 
yet day; the elephants rejected their fodder; the cows refused to nourish their calves; 
mothers felt no pleasure even in the sight of their first-born; the planets approached the 



60 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

moon in evil aspects; the stars appeared gloomy, and moved backward; the clouds were- 
driven by the wind until they resembled a troubled ocean in the air; the city was moved 
out of its place; and the four quarters of the heavens were in great agitation and over- 
spread with darkness. The whole city of Ayodhta was thrown into mourning, and 
resembled the earth and mountains when deprived of Indra (summer); fathers and 
mothers ceased to think of their children, wives forgot their husbands, and lovers failed 
to remember each other." (History of India, vol. ii, pp. 130, 131.) 

To the mythologist, this parallel is complete; the matter-of-fact reader, as is to be 
expected, will fail to see it, thereby foregoing great mental enjoyment. 



CHAPTER V. 

TOWER OF BABEL. 

"Assyrian* chiefs bade Babel's tower arise 
On Shinar's plain, aspiring to the skies; 
Whose eight-volved dragon twining round the whole, 
Shews that eight cycles round the northern pole, 
At four degrees asunder, closed their view; 
Which prove its latitude was thirty -two." 

Mackey's Myth. Astron., p. 19. 

THIS myth of the Tower of Babel, though varying so 
almost entirely from any of the preceding myths of the 
Bible as scarcely to be recognized as identical with any of 
them, is certainly, as I expect to show, but a variation of the 
old story, or at the least, a part of it — winter. 

A critical examination of the language of this myth as 
found in Genesis xi, from which its history is to be mainly 
derived, together with what may be gathered from outside 
sources, will enable the reader to decide this question with 
some degree of certainty. 

" Babylon, the first-built city of the world, was founded by 
persons of giant race, who likewise erected the celebrated 
tower" (Bryant, Anc. Myth., vol. iv, p. 153). This accords 
with the Bible account, and is true, of course, as " there were 
giants in the earth in those days " (Gen. vi, 4). Thus it ever 
is : as soon as we begin to inquire concerning this celebrated 
tower, the idea of a " confusion," chaos, or yawning gap (the 
ginungagap of the Norsemen) sticks out and becomes promi- 
nent. 

"Alexander Polyhistor and other profane writers, who have 

* The word " Assyrian " comes from the Semitic root aslier, to step up, as the Sun 
does in returning from the winter solstice. Asshur is from the same root. 

He was the second son of Shem (Gen. x, 22), and answered to the month wherein the 
winter solstice was. (See note on page 63.) 



62 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

noticed the tower, said that it had been blown down by the 
winds" (Smith, Bio. Diet, art. Babel). This also, of course, is 
true beyond a doubt ; for we all see this famous tower blown 
down every spring by the March or God winds. Thus will the 
sacred recital ever be supported by profane history, the truth 
of which is never to be doubted when in support of theology. 

"And the whole earth was of one language and of one 
speech " (Gen. xi, 1). 

Previous to the Flood the year was divided into two 
seasons — winter and summer, the former being alluded to as 
dreary and desolate. In the myth of the Flood, the year con- 
sisted, as we have seen, of three seasons. In this of the Tower 
of Babel, the antediluvian division is readopted, as we shall 
soon see. We are now told that " the earth was of one lan- 
guage and of one speech," which is merely saying by way of 
circumlocution, that the earth " was dreary and desolate" i. e., 
that the pleasant summer days were ended ; that the myriads 
of airy-tinged flowers which had but just now bespangled the 
earth, were faded and gone ; that the leaves were fallen from 
the trees ; that the ground was bared of its herbage ; that the 
birds had flown to happier climes ; nay, that the very beasts 
had retired to the forests, or hid themselves within their holes 
and caves; and that all was still, silent as the tomb, save the 
hoarse sough of the chilling blast. In short that it was 
winter, — 

" When biting Boreas fell and doure, 
Sharp shivers through the leafless bower; 
When Phoebus gives a short-lived glower 
Far south the lift. ^ 

Indeed, in the expression : "And the earth was of one 
language and of one speech," we have nothing but the naked 
truth ; for Phoebus, bright Phoebus, the Sun of summer, the 
God of all activity, shorn of his seven golden locks, Samson- 
like, had departed far into the " sunny south," away down into 
the " bottomless pit," and the question with the distressed 
Babylonians (the people in winter) was how to regain Heaven 
— how to get back into summer. For this purpose they 



TOWER OF BABEL. 63 

united, being of one speech, to build a vast tower by which 
they hoped to scale the ramparts of the celestial city ! 

But to begin, they must first lay the foundation for their 
tower, i. e., they must fall back from the tripartite, or diluvian 
division of the year, to the bipartite, or the antediluvian 
division. This they did thus : In 1 Chron. iv, 39, 40, we 
find : "And they w T ent to the entrance of Gedor (division) 
unto the east of the valley (winter) to seek pasture for their 
flocks ; and they found fat pasture and good, and the land was 
wide and quiet, and peaceable (the w T eather was mild) ; for they 
(the fourth part of Ham) had dwelt there of old." The mean- 
ing is, that by the old bipartite or antediluvian division of the 
year, the fourth part of Ham (October, the last of the summer 
months in the tripartite division of Noah) had formerly had 
its place in the winter half of the year. Again ; in this same 
chapter, v. 10, Jabez (he causes pain — winter) prayed to have* 
his coasts enlarged, and God granted his request, i. e., Aries, 
setting wholly, brings the first degree of Scorpio up to the 
equator ; where God rests and winter begins. Now, suppose 
a line drawn across the zodiac from east to west, so as to show 
the seven summer constellations on its north side; the five 
winter constellations will then appear on its south side, and 
October (represented by Scorpio) the fourth part of Ham (the 
summer of Noah) will be included with the four months of 
Shem (the Noachic winter). This was exactly what Jabez, or 
Shem, prayed for and obtained, as above noted. Thus, then, 
was the fourth part of Ham's people, " who had dwelt there of 
old " (before the Flood), transferred back within the coasts of 
Jabez to the great gain of the distressed Babylonians. " This 
one fourth part of the line of Ham w r ere the apostates, who 
had an inclination to remain where they first settled, instead 
of occupying the place to which they were afterward assigned." 
(Bryant, Ane. Myth., vol. iv, p. 43.)* 

* In Gen. x, 22, we find Shem had Jive sons : Elam, Asshur. Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. 
They were born to him after the Flood (Gen. x, 1), and probably for this special use of 
the Babylonians. This understood, of course, they may all be readily identified with 
these five winter months as now reconstructed, and represented by Scorpio, Sagittarius, 
Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, thus: "Elam," says Fuer3t (Heb. Lex., p. 1040), 
" stands for paras "=Persian for horseman= Sagittarius ; Asshur, one who mounts up= 
Capricornus, the goat, an animal famous in this direction; Arphaxad, according to 



64 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

The journeying in this myth, as in all, is from, the East. 
And it came to pass as they journeyed, that they found a 
valley (not a plain, but a valley, as in the original) in the land 
of Shinar. (Gen. xi, 2.) 

" Of this name Shinar" says Dr. Smith {Bib. Diet.), " no 
traces are to be found among the Babylonian inscriptions," 
which admission is significant. " It seems," says the Doctor, 
; ' to be plainly Jewish, and unknown to any other people." 
Gesenius tells us " its derivation is unknown " {Heb. Lex., p. 
1094). Fuerst, in his Hebrew Lexicon, is* equally at fault. 
Sir William Drummond, however, and it would seem with a 
good degree of plausibility, derives it from shan = the Sun, 
and naar = a boy, i. e., Shinar means boy-Sun = the New 
Year's Sun, the Ganymede (Joy-promoter) of the Grecians, 
and the W ish-you-hajppy-New- Year of the moderns. 

Thus, then, the wmole earth, i. e., the people of the north- 
ern hemisphere, found themselves away down in the valley of 
Shinar, at the winter solstice, the birth-place of the Sun ; in 
the valley of Hinnom, in Gehenna, in Sheol, in Hades, or in " the 
belly of Hell," out of which, it is said, Jonah cried so lustily. 
(Jonah ii, 2.) Here they set themselves at work, as honest 
people, to build a Tower whereby they might return to 
Heaven, or summer, or "the land flowing with milk and 
honey." They of course worked with a will, for, in the short 
space of three months, they constructed a " tower a furlong in 
length and breadth, upon which they raised a second tower, 
and on that a third, and so on up to eight." {Herod, i, 181.) 
This vast edifice they surrounded with a spiral stairway which 
encircled it eight times. This was just sufficient to bring them 
up to the spring equinox. Here they were met by the Lord 
and his company (Sun in Aries = the " us "), who came down 
upon them with their March wind, overturned their works, 
confounded their language, and scattered them abroad upon 
" the face of all the earth" (Gen. xi, 9). 

In this myth, then, the Tower of Babel denoted the winter 

Philo, the Jew {Bohris Philo, vol. ii. p. 275), is — "he disturbs sorrow " l -Aquarius= 
Moses, who disturbed Pharaoh; Lud was a descendant of Ham, and therefore =8cor}no; 
and Aram= high = Pisces, the last of the winter months, according to any arrangement now 
known. 



tOwer of babel. 65 

hemisphere. The eight spiral* refer to the eight climatal cir- 
cles which the Sun seems to describe about the earth in his 
return from the winter solstice. Here let it be noted that 
each successive climatal circle denotes an increase in the 
length of the midsummer day of a quarter of an hour. The 
eight climatal circles would, therefore, show the longest day 
to be fourteen hours, which points to a latitude of thirty-two 
-degrees north, that of Babylon nearly.* 

The ancient Egyptians, it appears from some of their mon- 
uments, adopted half-hour climates. These the}' indicated by 
a serpent coiled four times about a man, a pillar, or an egg, 
each the symbol of the universe, or the year. These four coils 
would point to the same latitude as the eight of the Tower of 
Babel.f 

But it is time to return to the poor Babylonians. Of 
course they must be thought in a bad fix ; their tower, erected 
at an immense cost, leveled to the ground ; their language 
confounded, and themselves scattered in the twinkling of an 
eye over all the earth. However, the season was much in 
their favor, being spring, when all nature is rejnyenated. 
The beasts and animals of every description had' come forth 
from their several quarters, and, with the birds, insects and 
all creeping things, were on the alert in search of food, and in 
preparing to rear their young. And their voices ! Oh, what 
incoherent babblings ! The horse neighed and the ass brayed ; 
the bull bellowed and the cow lowed ; the sheep bleated and 
the dog barked ; the hog squealed and the turkey gobbled ; 
the frog croaked and the cock crowed ; the birds sang and the 
bees hummed. Oh. what an interminable hubbub ! Myriads 
of voices were thus confounded, i. e., poured out together,' and 
though scattered oyer all the earth, all were joyful and full of 
activity. 

* Other examples: The famous Ecbatana had seven spirals, " denoting the seven plan- 
ets, or the seven climates." (fiaiv. Herod., vol. i. p. 186.) Nineveh ("■nine-serpents''' 1 ) 
[this is Mackcy's etymology] had, it is said, nine spirals indicating a north latitude of 
36°, which is its true latitude, nearly. The porcelain tower of Nanking, China, had eight 
symmetrical towers, pointing to a latitude of 32°, or thereabouts. The basement of this 
tower is dissimilar from the main shaft, and may not be counted in. More examples 
might be collected, but here is enough. 

t " The serpent which winds his crooked folds around a pillar images the obliquity 
of the Sun's ecliptic/ ' ^Banier's Myth., vol. i, p. 532.) 



66 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Ah ! what joy, what happiness ! It was enough to warm 
up the cold heart of the most impassive stoic. None could, 
none cared to understand the language of any but his own 
mate ; none gave heed to any other, but poured forth in notes 
of love and admiration the innate perturbations of his inmost 
soul regardless of those around him. 

In Gen. 10, we are three times told that the descendants 
of Noah not only divided the habitable world among them- 
selves according to their families, but according to their tongues, 
or languages, also. This having taken place, according to the 
marginal chronology of the Bible, one hundred years before 
" the confusion of tongues," of course has nothing to do with 
the tower of Babel. 

The learned Jacob Bryant thought the Lord " did not 
change the language of the Babylonians so that it became 
another language, or many languages, but only confused it, 
and this confusion, was simply a failure of the lip, so that the 
people could not articulate distinctly ; it was not an aberration 
in words or language, but an incapacity of distinct utterance, 
and this incapacity of speech is by all limited to the region 
about Babel." (Anc. Myth., vol. iv, p. 40.) This very learned 
author is undoubtedly correct, as in right cold weather, our 
tongues often refuse to do their office, i. e., they become 
stiffened and are, therefore, " incapable of distinct utterance." 
Hence we learn why Moses, who was a Babylonian, " was slow 
of speech and of a slow tongue " (Ex. iv, 10). 

Dr. Smith says, in relation to " the confusion of tongues," 
it does not follow that languages were then formed as they 
exist now, and the comparative grammarian may trace up the 
beautiful laws which show the very opposite of confusion, with- 
out fearing to contradict the true sense of Scripture narrative." 
{Old Test. Hist, p. 62.) When, oh when will theologians 
cease to mislead the people ? 



CHAPTER VI. 

ABRAM AND SARAI. 

BARON BUNSEN remarks of this myth : " With the ex- 
ception of the father (Abram) and nephew (Lot) we have 
no real personages." , {Egypt, vol. iii, 374.) This is equivalent 
to saying that Abram and Lot were not real personages, as 
indeed they were, not ; for, if their fathers were unreal, it must 
follow of a necessity that the sons were unreal also. 

I shall treat of this myth as it relates to the first form of 
the names Abram and Sarai, and afterward proceed to the 
second part of the story under the altered names Abraham and 
Sarah, when I will show the reason of their alteration. 

Terah {Lat. terra— earth) begat Nahor {snorter— whiter), 
Abram (father-of-elevation= spring), and Haran (heat = sum- 
mer), i. e., the earth during the year begat the three seasons 
in their regular succession. Haran, the brother of Abram, 
begat Lot (the hidden one=winter), i. e., winter came after 
summer. Thus, Lot was nephew to Abram (Gen. xi, 27). In 
the twenty-eighth verse, it is said, "Haran died in the land of 
his nativity before the face of his father, in Ur of the Chaldees," 
i. e., as the Sun leaves Scorpio, summer ends, the earth (Terah) 
being exactly opposite the East (the Ur of the Chaldees) at the 
rising of the Sun as it comes to the first degree of Sagittarius 
(see the zodiac). As Haran died, Lot (winter) was born. Be- 
sides Lot, Haran had two daughters, Milcah (queen = Virgo in 
autumn) and Iscah (she that looks back = Virgo in spring). Iscah 
married her brother Lot, and shortly after, because she, on a 
certain occasion, looked back, was turned into " a pillar of salt," 
i. e., Virgo went down into the sea below the western horizon. 
Haran, though unmarried, for all we know, seems to have had 
better luck in getting children than his God-favored brother, 



6(S THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Abrairi, who took to wife his half-sister* Sarai (Gen. xx 3 12). 
Nahor married his niece Milcah. Thus, are these three broth- 
ers found to be the same with Shem, Ham and Japheth, sons of 
Noah, who was the same as Terah. 

Though this myth sets out with the Noachic or tripartite 
division of the year, the reader will notice that provision is at 
once made for its abolition and the resumption of the older 
bipartite division. This is done by the death of Haran and 
the birth of Lot. Nahor is preserved to be used as Shem was 
in the myth of the tower of Babel. He will turn up again, 
however, at the proper time. (See Gen. xxiv, 15.) 

Arrangements having been thus made, Terah (terra = earth) 
sets out upon his journey, taking with him "Abram, his son, 
and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his 
daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth 
with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of 
Canaan, and they came into the land of Haran (the summer 
season of four months, the last of which is Canaan = Scorpio), 
and dwelt there" (Gen. xi, 31). 

Here Terah died, as the earth, shorn of its harvests and 
deprived of its power of production, f dies every year at this 
precise time — the end of summer. Abram now, as a dutiful 
son, on the death of his father, went into mourning. After 
the prescribed time of weeping (the rainy season) was past, 
being called of the Lord (spring), Abram again departed for 
the land of Canaan. This time he personified the seven sum- 
mer months, and Lot, the balance of the year. Matters being 
thus arranged, the little party set out as before from " Ur of 
the Chaldees." Now, where and what is this "Ur of the 
Chaldees"? "Oh," says the theologian, "it is a city of 
Mesopotamia. " But where is this "Mesopotamia?" "Oh," 

* JupUer had a sister-wife {Sorer el conjiix) Juno. The Grecian Zeus took Hera, his 
sister, to wife. (Keightley's Myth., p. 85.) The Scandinavian Thor and the Indian Indra 
were counterparts of the Zeus and Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans. The latter, Indra, 
heing once covered all over with the symbols of his concupiscence, was named "the 
profligate lord of the gods." (Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 264.) As these lords all person, 
ify spring, the love season, these facts may be readily accounted for. 

t Here, too, it was that Noah got drunk, as we have seen, and lost his virility; and 
again, it was the very spot where Joseph, as we shall hereafter find, being impotent, 
forfeited hi6 cloak to the beautiful wife of his master and fled, rather than expose his 
weakness. (Gen. xxxix, 12.) 



ABRAM AND SARAI. 69 

lie again answers, " it is a place somewhere between tw T o 
rivers." Truly, the parrot is able to utter a few words, though 
indistinctly, if first pronounced for him. Mesopotamia is 
literally middle rivers, not "between two rivers" as usually 
interpreted, for here it means the horizon, which was deemed 
a river by the ancients. (See Cosmos Indicopleustes' Map of 
the Earth, copied into Types of Mankind, p. 569.) It is 
plural in form, following the analogy of Elohim, Cherubim, 
Seraphim, etc. But " TJr of the Chaldees" where is that situ- 
ated? "Ur" is the Hebrew word for light. " Chaldees is 
derived from Chesed, who is mentioned in order to derive 
from him the origin of the Chaldees" (Ges. Ileb. Lex., p. 490). 
This is a way the ancients had of making nations. All they 
had to do was but to speak the word, and, presto, a nation 
would come up quick as thought. Chesed was, it is said, 
the son of Nahor (Gen. xxii, 20). His name is literally, one 
who cuts=& divider. In this sense, it may have reference to 
the spring equinox, which divides winter from summer. Thus 
we arrive at what may be deemed the true meaning of " Ur of 
the Chaldees." " It is a city of upper Mesopotamia," i. e., it 
is a city of the division of light, and is located at the spring 
equinox, exactly where " God divided between the light and 
between the darkness" (Gen. i, I). It is the East, the Orient, 
the Urirn et Thutnim, or the true light— the light var excel- 
lence, i. e., the equinoctial Sun* of spring. 

Here, then, at " Ur of the Chaldees," at the spring equinox, 
or at the beginning of the year, Abram (the summer Sun), with 
his relations, sat out upon his annual round. He passed thence 
"unto the^flk^ of Sichem" (shoulder=the commencement of 
the year), "unto the plain of Moreh" (the archer, Mars, who 
usually holds an arrow, and has his home in Aries), i. e., 
Abram, or the Sun of spring, on leaving the equinoctial line, 
entered the constellation Aries, whose place was formerly 
occupied by Taurus. " The Canaanite was then in the land," 
i. e., Scorpio was still above the horizon at sunrise, though 

* Since writing the above, J. P. Lundy, in hie recent new work, comes to my support. 
He says: " Ur of the Chaldees was called Urphi and Orphi." From the last apparently 
comes Orpheus, by which name we are to ki understand Cadmus and the Cadmeans," i.e., 
the East. {Monumental Christianity, p. 190.) 



70 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

going down in the west. Here he built an altar to the Lord 
(the Indra of the Hindoos, the Zeus of the Greeks, the Jupiter 
of the Romans, or the warm spring atmosphere of all nations), 
who makes his appearance about this time. ^Noah also built 
an altar at this season, and let the Lord smell " a sweet savor" 
(the blossoms of spring), which greatly tickled him (Gen. viii, 
20, 21). From the plain of Moreh, Abram removed to a 
mountain on the east of Beth-el (Ram's house). This moun- 
tain was the summer solstice, which (the Sun in Aries) is on 
the east of Beth-el or Aries. At this spot he pitched his tent, 
having Beth-el on the west, and Hai (the end of the year) on 
the east, i. e., the first half of summer was gone, and on the 
west; the last half was vet to come — from the east. Here, 
too, he called upon the name of the Lord (the summer solstice). 
Thence (i. e., from the summer solstice), Abram journeyed, 
going toward the south (Gen. xii, 9),* on his way to Egypt, or 
the land of distress=w'mter. As usual after the ingathering", 
there was a famine in the land, i. e., the land for that year w r as 
done producing and the winter stores must be drawn upon. 
" When he had come near to enter into Egypt/' i. e., when he 
was at the fall equinox, and Virgo was risen into the upper 
hemisphere, to protect himself, because of his unfounded sus- 
picions, and regardless of the ignominious treatment he 
supposed his wife was about to receive at the hand of the 
virtuous and benevolent Pharaoh (winter Sun), Abram adopted 
the method best calculated to defeat his purpose — lying- But 
Pharaoh, infidel as he was, having enjoyed the beautiful Sarai's 
company for a time in his own house, sent her forth pure and 
chaste as she entered it, with a withering rebuke to her per- 
fidious husband. Abram, however, like many another deceitful 
hypocrite, took all in good part, while he decamped with the 
wealth of which he had spoiled the Egyptians. The Lord, 
too, it appears, was in league with Abram, for while Pharaoh 
was enjoying Sarai's company, "he plagued Pharaoh and his 
house with great plagues, because of Sarai, Abram's wife " 



* One would suppose, from the vulgar text, that Abram had previously been travelirg 
south. The translation is bad, as may be gathered from the marginal reading even. The 
word- * l still " is totally unwarranted by the original. 



ABRAM AiyD SARAI. 71 

(Gen. xii, 17). These ''great plagues" were the same with 
those of the Exodus. 

But Abram went up out of Egypt, journeying from the 
south even to Beth- el (the spring equinox), and thence to the 
place of his tent (summer solstice) between Bethel and Hai. 
Here, as before, he called upon the name of the Lord. By 
this time Abram and Lot, of which last as yet little has been 
said, had become so wealthy, having herds and flocks and 
tents, that " the land was not able to bear them." This often 
occasioned strife between the herdsmen of the two parties. 
They, therefore, dissolved partnership. Lot chose the plain 
(kiskr — circle) of the lower Jordan (the Sun's ecliptic), i. e., 
the winter hemisphere, which was " well watered everywhere " 
(rainy season), and then, as now, contained the five cities (five 
winter months), Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Beta, 
which is Zoar = the Little. The two brothers having thus 
parted at the end of summer, '" Lot journeyed from the east,"* 
i. e., winter came on (Gen. xiii, 11). "But the men of Sodom 
were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly " (v. 13). 
Thus, Abram, like his grandson Jacob, got the best of the 
bargain. 

In due time after the separation from Lot, the Lord, as was 
his habit, met Abram at Beth-el. Here he renewed his cove- 
nant with Abram, and repeated his promise (of the coining 
crop). After which Abram settled in Mamre (the fattening- 
place = summer) near Hebron at the spring equinox, where he 
abode six months.f Hebron is the same as Kirjath-arba (four 
cities, i. e., the four quarters of the year). (Gen. xxiii, 2.) 
Note here, too, that besides the Canaanite, the Perrzzite 
(laborer) dwelt then in the land " (Gen. xiii, 7). Thus, we 
see, Abram may personate the Sun, the earth, the year, or a 
part of it, or, it may be, all together ; for all work in unison 
and reciprocate among themselves according to their respective 
relations and attributes. If he personate the year, then, of 
course, he represents all the relations between the Sun and 

* This is the reading of the original, which is correct, since the stars all move from 
the east to the west. 

t Counting from Aries, where he set up his altar. 



72 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

earth during the year ; i. e., all the phenomena of the year ; 
if of spring, then only those pertaining to this season, etc. Lot r 
though personating winter, was a mere underling, as Abram 
took the lead in everything. 

In chapter xiv, we meet with what is seemingly a digres- 
sion, but which, however, is in proper relation. The year, by 
the dissolution of the partnership between Abram and Lot, 
was henceforth to be more distinctly defined as consisting of 
but two seasons — summer and winter. The calendar, of 
course, must be regulated accordingly. This seems to be the 
aim of this chapter. In order to do this, i. e., to define the 
exact amount of territory which should fall to each of the two 
brothers, Abram and Lot (for Haran was dead and Nahor 
otherwise disposed of), a great battle must be fought. In this 
battle of the year, we find engaged on the one side, Chedorla- 
omer (the sheaf-binder = the year which is made up of all its 
parts) and his three kings (the three seasons of the old year) 
against the five kings (the intercalary days), on the other side. 
These last had served Chedorlaomer twelve years (the twelve 
lunar months), but in the thirteenth they rebelled, i. e., the 
time passed along well enough until at the end of the thirteen 
lunar months,* or 364 days, a mistake of one day was discovered 

— hence the rebellion. Chedorlaomer now came on with his 
three kings against Lot (the winter, the intercalation having 
always been, and is yet, put to the winter side of the year) 
and was (so prone are the ignorant to stick to old ideas) for 
the time victorious — the conservatives against the innovators 

— carrying Lot and his household into captivity. " But one 
escaped" (the odd day), came and told Abram the Hebrew, 
i. e., Abram of the crossing = Sun at spring equinox, of Lot's 
defeat and capture. 

Hearing this, Abram the Hebrew gathered up 318* of his 
servants, born in his own household (Sun's ecliptic), of whom 

* The number, 318, of Abram's servants is remarkable. Plutarch relates that a con- 
nection having heen discovered between Saturn (Time) and Rhea (Earth), the Sun 
threatened that the latter should not be delivered of a child during any month, or year 
Rut Mercury, who was in love with Rhea, playing at dice with the Moon, won the 
twentieth part of each of her annual lunations, i. e., the twentieth part of 360 days=18 
days. The Moon God. however, won back the seventy-second of each day of the year, out 
of which she formed five whole days. These she added to the 300 days, thus making the 



AltKA^I AND SAltAI. 73 

he was the father, and pursued the enemy unto Dan, i. e., unto 
Scorpio ; for here it was that the summer of the bipartite year 
was reckoned to end. Here at the spot where Noah entered 
the ark, Abram at midnight, for from thence time is usually 
reckoned, divided his little army, i. e., he left the summer days 
behind him, and w T ith the remainder he pursued the enemy 
unto Hobah (lurking-hole = the ambush of Joshua), smiting 
them as he went. Hobah is on the left (west) of Damascus 
(the East, or spring equinox). (Gen. xiv, 15.)* 

Here, having thus recaptured Lot with his household and 
goods, Abram was met by two kings : the king of Sodom (the 
winter solstice), and Melchizedek, king of righteousness (the 
summer solstice). The latter brought forth "bread and wine" 
(Gen. xiv, 18), "gifts which recall to Christians the Lord's sup- 
per " (Smith, Old Test. Hist., p. 74), but which will enable 
the free inquirer to identify this "king of peace," who was 
priest of the "Most High God," i. e., Aries at his zenith, as 
the summer season of the year. The other, the king of Sodom, 
was, of course, king of the alternate season, or winter. Thus 
ends this legend of Abram. 

In Gen. xv, we have another repetition of the story of 
Abram, in a still different form, wherein, Lot being left out, 
Abram (the Sun, or earth, or both, it matters little, for the two 
act reciprocally) is made to personify the whole year. 



year to consist of 365 clays. On these five days Rhea brought forth Osiris, Arueris, 
Typhon, Isis and Nephte. 

The reader will bear in mind that the Moon has two revolutions: the siderial, which is 
equal to the time which elapses between her leaving a particular star till she returns to 
it again=27d. 7h. 43m. lis.; and the synodic, which is equal to the interval between two 
conjunctions, or two oppositions=29d. 12h. 44m. 2s.— in round numbers respectively, 28 
and thirty days. 

Now, from the year of 1*2 synodic months, or 369 days, take the twentieth part, or 18 
days. Deduct these 18 days from the 12 siderial months, or 336 days, and we have 318, the 
number of Abram's servants. (See Plutarch's Morals, vol. iv, p. 78, Lond. 1694; also, 
Bunson's Egypt, vol. iii, p. 65.) 

Clemens, of Alexandria, gives us another solution in the Greek zcyj. The r is the 
Lord's sign, i. e., it denotes the summer solstice, its numeral value being 300. The :r, 
are the first two letters of '.r^ooq. of which : = 10, and r J= 8; the whole=318. (Works, 
vol. ii, p. 352.) 

* Hobah was probably the time of Lent, as 360 — 318, the number of Abram's servants — 
is equal to 42, about the number of days (the period varying between 40 and 50 days) 
devoted by Christians to fasting toward spring. This institution was probably got up to 
economize food, which is apt to get short about this time. The Israelites ate manva— 
what-(Vye-call-it ? during Lent! 



74 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Here the Lord, appearing in a vision (i. e., during Lent, 
when Daniel mourned and ate neither flesh nor drank wine, 
Dan. x, 23), to Abram, makes his accustomed promise, but 
Abram, grown older and richer, asks: "What wilt thou give 
me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this 
Eliezer (helping-ram = Aries during summer) of Damascus 
(the East)? Thou hast given me no seed (did Abram lie? see 
xiv, 14), and this illegitimate (alluding to Ishmael of the next 
chapter) born in my own house is my heir. He shan't be thy 
heir, responds the Lord (v. 4). Look at the stars above 
thee ; thy seed shall be as they, i. e., the self-same stars. Abram 
saw and was converted. 

Thus far the promise : Abram is now again taken from TTr 
of the Chaldees (v. 7), and while making the usual offerings 
(vv. 9, 10) of the crops of the two halves of summer (the har- 
vest and the ingathering), which the divided animals signify 
{Philo Jud., vol. iv, p. 413), "the fowls (the Vulture or the 
Lyre, the Swan and the Eagle, constellations which set toward 
the end of summer) came down upon the carcasses," i. e., the 
summer was followed by winter, which devoured the crops 
(v. 11); and Abram, says our fradulent translation, "drove 
them away." Philo Jud. has : " Abraham passing over, sat 
upon them " (vol. iv, p. 417), which is much nearer the original 
— Summer passed away and rested upon winter. 

Soon after, as the autumnal Sun was going down into the 
winter hemisphere, "a deep sleep fell upon Abram (Adam), 
and a horror of great darkness" (v. 12). The Lord now told 
him, in his sleep while dreaming, that "his seed (the summer 
stars) shall serve a stranger in a strange land, and be afflicted 
400 years," i. e., that the summer constellations will be visible 
in the night during the five winter months — October, Novem- 
ber, December, January, February. Philo Jud. has it 40 
years (vol. iv, p. 418). It matters not, however, as the number 
in either case is a multiple of 10, the number of Egyptian 
plagues. 

On being assured by the Lord that he would come forth 
with great substance, go to his fathers in peace, and be buried 
in a good old age, Abram of course, was content. Thus, the 



A Bit AM AND SARAI. / "> 

Sun having gone down, Abram found himself in darkness (win- 
ter) where he beheld a smoking furnace (hell-fire) and a burning 
lamp (the dim Sun in winter) to light him on his way through 
these gloomy regions — between the two pieces of the calf ( Jer. 
xxxiv, 18, 19). What an idea! All right, nevertheless; the 
calf (Taurus of the Zodiac) " is cut in twain " at either equi- 
nox, between which (the two equinoxes), in the lower hemis- 
phere, Abram was passing (v. 12). In due time, however, the 
"covenant" is made and "the land from the river of Egypt 
(spring equinox) and the river Euphrates'' (good-fruits = autum- 
nal equinox) was again in his possession. 

At verse 16 reference seems to be had to the bissextile or 
leap year ; for here it is said, " The iniquity of the Amorites 
was not yet full." Hence it is said, "In the fourth generation 
they shall come hither again." The word " dor" here trans- 
lated generation, literally means circle, i. e., the year. At the 
end of the fourth year, therefore, the " iniquity," i. e., the 
error, could be corrected by the addition of an integral or 
whole day — the "one escaped," the informer of Abram, as 
is still done. The Amorites — intercalary days — were the 
subjects of Amor (from the Hebrew amar — to speak, to call), 
the speaker, or caller, or commander, Aries, the first of the 
zodiacal constellations, to which all the days of the year were 
supposed to be subject. Intercalary means called-between, 
hence intercalary days are called-between days. 

Having traced out the meaning of these three legends of 
our common Father, the year, we now come to the very beau- 
tiful and interesting episode of 

Sabai and Hagab.* 

Gen., chap, xvi : " Now Sarai (my star), Abram's wife, 
bare him no children." Despairing of offspring by herself, 

* Hagar appears to have been the same as Leucothea, or the White-goddess of the 
Grecians — the same also as their Ino, daughter of Cadmus, or the East; the same again 
as the Greek Eos, and the Boman Matuta. or morning goddess, because rising with the 
Sun. All were handmaids to their mistresses, and secondary wives to their husbands, 
by whom they all had children. (See Leucothea in Montfaucon and other works on 
Mythology.) 

She was also sometimes called Astraea, or the starry goddess, of whom it was said in 
autumn — 

11 When fraud and violence fill earth and main, 
Ashamed of man Astraea flies the plain." 



76 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Sarai gave her handmaid Hagar (flight), an Egyptian woman, 
to Abram, ; ' to be his wife, that he might be builded up 
through her." 

Now, be it known that when the Sun rises in Aries, Virgo 
lias set, thus becoming a night constellation, and " beautiful to 
look upon." Thus she is Abram's wife, Sarai (my star), and 
is found during the summer months until near August in the 
night hemisphere, coming to her meridian toward the end of 
May. Coming in conjunction with the Sun at the end of 
summer, she flees with Abram into the winter hemisphere,, 
and gets the name Hagar {flight). As a winter constellation,, 
she gets the epithet Ethiopian. By means of her fruits, gath- 
ered at the end of summer, Sarai is builded up through her 
(Hagar). Just nine months after the love affair above spoken 
of (their conjunction), Ishmael is born at the summer solstice, 
Ishmael was the genius of winter, because born when the days 
begin to shorten. He was the precursor of Isaac, and bore the 
same relation to him as John the Baptist did to Jesus Christ. 
Ishmael and Isaac were the same as Esau and Jacob. Isaac 
was the younger. Like Jacob, he came forth clinging to the 
heels of his brother, as summer always follows winter. 

Ishmael is literally the Ram, will hear. Why? Because 
the Ram (Aries) was in his zenith, i. e., was the Most High 
God, when Ishmael was born. Going in different directions, as 
they apparently did, the Ram will hear him and that is all. 
Our Savior is often called Immanuel. Why? Because at his 
birth the Bam was in his nadir, i. e., on his meridian, and the 
two traveled together to the east where they met (Sun in 
Aries) ; hence Immanuel, i. e., " God is with us." 

Ishmael's hand was " against every man and every man's 
hand against him." Why ? Because, at his birth, the days 
grew shorter, and winter came on. Winter is against every 
man and every man is against winter, i. e., in summer every 
man must provide against winter. Isaac (laughter) was Jesus, 
because born at the winter solstice (the Savior's birthday), he 
brought " good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all 
people." That is, the days begin to lengthen from the winter 
solstice, spring is in prospect, when all will be saved ! 



SARAI AND HAGAR. 77 

Again, Ishmael and Isaac are the same as John the Baptist 
and John the Evangelist of the Freemasons (Mackey's Manual, 
p. 57). Says John the Baptist, "he (Christ, or John the 
Evangelist) must increase, but I must decrease " (John iii, 30) 
— the days shorten from the summer solstice and lengthen 
from the winter solstice. 

But what has become of poor Hagar, with whom Sarai 
dealt hardly ? Ah, here she is exactly where the angel of the 
Lord (Aries) found her, by a fountain of water (the latter rain 
of spring) in the way to Shur (the solstitial colure). The 
angel of the Lord (Aries in spring) at once, ordered her to re- 
turn to her mistress, which she proceeded to do, not, however, 
before he told her she was " in the family way," which news, 
seeing she was six months gone, so startled her that she ex- 
claimed, " Thou God seest me ! " And sure enough so he did 
see her, for they were opposite each other, across the way — 
God (Aries) being near the spring equinox, and Hagar (Yirgo) 
a little past or below the opposite point in the zodiac. Where- 
fore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi (the "Well-of-life-of- 
vision), because the living God * looked upon her. It is 
between Kadesh = Holy, and Bered — hail (Ges. xvi, 14) — 
between holy and hail, i. e., between summer and winter. In 
short, the time was spring, for Aries and the Sun were in or 
near their conjunction; as they now are — March, 1873; and 
Christ, the Sun of summer is again risen from the dead (win- 
ter), and we shall be resuscitated — shall live again! Glory 
hallelujah! i. e., praise ye Jack — Jack the giant (winter) 
killer — the Jack that built the house (summer) that Jack 
built ! 

Such is the account of Hagar's flight as found in this 
chapter. In Gen. xvii, 25, Ishmael was thirteen years old 
when this event took place. Again, in Gen. xxi, 14, he is a 
mere child and borne upon the shoulders of his mother ! 
These are glaring inconsistencies, though they relate to a most 

* Christians, in using the term " living God," so often repeated in the sacred text, 
always admit, though not aware of the fact, the alternative — a dead God! My discovery 
of their mystic God will readily explain this apparent paradox. Aries being God, as is 
now thoroughly proven, his conjunction with the Sun during summer, constitutes the 
living God. Disjoined from the Sun, as in winter, he is the dead God! 



73 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

important historical event. Which of the three accounts is 
true? Who can tell? In a mythical sense all are true! 

Abraham and Sarah. 

I here enter upon the second part of this very interesting 
myth, which is but a repetition of the first, though in some 
respects changed, but not without a purpose. In his first part, 
the myth-maker originated a new name for the genius of win- 
ter, as we have seen, but was unable, without a change of his 
programme, to bring out his intended new name for the genius 
of summer. To this intent, then, he altered the names of Hero 
and Heroine — of Abram and Sarai. By the insertion of a let- 
ter (H, the 3 being dropped from j"p, Jah, an abbreviation of 
mrP? Jahveh, or summer. See Fuerst, in voce n"ii""P) before 
the last two of Abram, and substituting the same in place of 
the last letter of Sarai, he formed the new names Abraham and 
Sarah, thus postponing the time of sexual congress from the 
fall, to the spring equinox. With this reconstruction of his 
myth, he was able in due time to produce Isaac, the new 
name desired. 

At the beginning of this myth, we had !Nahor= Snorter = 
Winter; Abram =Father-of-elevation= Spring, and Haran = 
Heat=Summer, i. e., the year was divided, according to the 
old style of the ancients, into three seasons. This arrangement 
was at once changed, as we have seen, Nahor and Haran were 
removed, the latter by death in the land of his nativity, the 
former being hidden away for future use — to furnish a wife 
for Isaac ; through Milcah = queen, Terah's daughter. By this 
change, Abraham and Lot were made to personify the year ; 
the first representing summer, the last, winter. Hence they 
came to be brethren, as they were sometimes called ; and they 
are brethren as near as summer and winter can make them, 
though, it must be confessed, they often look wonderfully — 
terribly unlike. The names (for all depends upon names in 
mythology) of Abram and Sarai were imperfect for the purpose 
looked for. True, Abram had Ishmael by Sarai's handmaid 
Hagar, but he was an illegitimate, and could not inherit of his 



ABRAHAM AND SARAH. 79 

father — winter could not be summer. The proper heir could 
only be procured by the help of the Lord, and hence the change 
of names as before indicated. Thus, we see that in Hebrew, 
as in all mythologies, there is a constant tendency to a multi- 
plication of names for the same thing, or, what is but slightly 
different. Indeed, the interdependence of the heavenly bodies, 
and the changes wrought by their different and ever-varying 
aspects, are such, and so infinitely numerous, that by a mere 
shift of our standpoint, even during the same myth, as in our 
present case, the material for the fabrication of such tales as 
this could never be exhausted. 

But to proceed: Abraham having got his new name, the 
Lord at once renewed his covenant with him, i. e., the summer 
began, as before, at the spring equinox. Here the Almighty 
God (El Shaddai=\h.Q breasted Ram, or Aries during sum- 
mer)* promised to multiply him exceedingly (Gen. xvii, 2). 
Whereat Abraham fell upon his face, i. e., the summer passed 
and the crops (the covenant promise) were ripe and gathered. 
Hereafter thy name shall be called Abraham (Gen. xvii, 5). 
Nations and kings shall come forth of thee. Of course, God, 
who never lies, told him the truth ; for without the earth's 
products, neither nations nor kings could exist. 

The rite of circumcision was now instituted. Circumcise 
means to cut around, or to make a circuit, and doubtless had 
reference to the completion of the year. At least, this seems 
to be its import here, as also in Ex. iv, 24. Here, in the East 
where the year ended at the spring equinox, the Lord met 
Moses (Sun in Aquarius) in the inn (the spring equinox, or 
inning of the year), and sought to kill him, i. e., to end the 
year at that time. Zipporah (Virgo) seized a sharp stone (the 
cardinal points being symbolized as sharp stones) and circum- 
cised her husband, i. e., she set in the west, thus bringing 
Aquarius above the equinoctial line, when she cast the circle 
of the year beneath his feet, saying " a bloody husband art thou 

* Shaddai, as an adjective, is a derivative of shad, " the breast of a woman:' (Fuerst, 
Heb. Lex., p. 1344), Shad is from shadah, " to pour out, to moisten, to suckle a child,'''' and 
hence to give sustenance, and so an apt epithet of El during summer. From the same root 
comes shiddah = " a mistress, spouse, wife:' (Ibid., p. 1346.) I suspect that the Amazons, 
then, were the winter months. 



80 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

to me " — the term " bloody " having reference to the aurora 
which then sat upon the East. Only the man-child (winter), 
be it observed was to undergo this rite (Gen. xvii, 10), and he 
that was not circumcised, of course, could not come to the 
Lord's covenant or spring equinox. This understanding of 
this rite of circumcision, will free the Lord from all imputation 
of cruelty to helpless infants, who cannot, and would not, if 
they could, perform this painful, cruel and barbarous operation. 
It takes force, and nobody but a cruel and savage priest, with 
his bugbear religion, could induce even the ignorant, to submit 
to such barbarity. In further proof of my position on this 
question, I submit that there was a place called " Foreskins- 
hill " (see Josh, v, 3), situated near Gilgal (the spring equinox). 
Stripped of its obscenity the name would mean " Naked-hill " 
(the earth being naked at this time), for the Hebrew dral 
means to make hare, not to circumcise (see Fuerst, in voce), and 
has reference to the earth in spring, as hare, or dreary and 
desolate. Again, spring is the season of love, when this rite 
may have reference to the congress of the sexes, not only of 
man, but of all animals ; nudity being then indispensable. I 
may add still further, that Joshua did not circumcise the chil- 
dren of Israel by the way (v. 7). i. e., during winter, but did 
so just at the passover=t\\e spring equinox (v. 10). 

But, it is time to return to Abraham, whom we left at the 
spring equinox talking with God, and being circumcised. 
Meanwhile, his wife's name has been changed to Sarah, a son, 
promised by her, named, his inheritance fixed, and all that. 
Abraham, as in duty bound, again fell upon his face (Gen. xvii, 
17). This time he laughed. Of course ; the crops looked 
well, and summer laughed. As regarded the promised son, 
however, Abraham was incredulous. He scouted the idea of 
an old couple like himself and Sarah, the one aged one hundred 
years and the other ninety, bearing children. He only asked 
" that Ishmael might live before thee," i. e., winter was coming 
on just then, which would be before, or opposite to summer 
(v. 18). God, no way offended at Abraham's familiarity, 
immediately, i. e., in the following spring, renewed his promise, 
making it more definite — -"But mv covenant will I establish 



ABKAHAM AND SARAH. 81 

with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at the appointed 
time (the winter solstice) next year" (Gen. xvii, 21). This is 
surely precise enough. So Abraham, leaving God at the fall 
•equinox, passed around to the spring equinox, where, again 
meeting him, he circumcised himself and Ishmael and all his 
household.* 

In chap, xviii, we find the Lord again appearing to Abra- 
ham ; this time also in the plains of Mamre, the fattening 
place, or summer, " as he sat in his tent door in the heat of 
the day," i. e., at the summer solstice. Abraham now "lifted 
up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood before him," 
one of whom he knew was " my Lord " (Adoni), for he so 
addressed him. The other two no doubt were God and Devil, 
as we read in Job these gentlemen sometimes get together. 
Perhaps we had better suppose the three were the three car- 
dinal points, East, South, West, Abraham, or the Sun, being 
in his Northern tropic, and thus making the fourth. This 
wouldn't be blasphemy. The eatables Abraham brought forth 
were all summer products. The promise of a son by Sarah 
was here renewed. It was now Sarah's turn to laugh, and 
laugh she did ; for when " she heard it in the tent door" (the 
East, for Yirgo was approaching the East), which was behind 
Abraham (the Sun was not yet in Yirgo), " Sarah laughed 
within herself" (Gen. xviii, 12). Yet though Sarah "laughed 
within herself," the Lord, ever watchful, saw and accused her. 
Sarah denied, saying, " I laughed not ;" when the Lord, as he 
gazed upon her transcendent beauty, for Sarah was " beautiful 
to look upon," couldn't but retort, like an entranced admirer: 
" Nay, but thou didst laugh " (Gen. xviii, 15). 

"And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward 
Sodom (winter), and Abraham (the Sun) went with theni to 
bring them on their way " (v. 16). Accordingly we find him 
in Sodom, but still before the Lord, i. e., opposite summer, for 
he was one of the company (v. 21), when, drawing near unto 
the Lord (summer) he plead feelingly for Sodom and Lot, but 
probably more for himself. However that may be, he was 

* Also all that were bought with money, of the stranger. These last were the tointer 
days, to support which costs money. The stranger=outsider. is winter. 

6 



82 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

successful as to Lot, but not as to the city.* Lot (the winter Sun) 
was seized by the two angels (the two equinoxes) and dragged 
up out of Sodom to heaven=the spring equinox (Gen. xix, 1). 
Abraham might have taken him into heaven, but Lot hung 
back, and by his entreaty, was left in Zoar (the little), formerly 
Bela=the swallowed-up place=the end of the year. 

When Lot arrived at Zoar, u the Sun had risen upon the 
earth," i. e., it was the beginning of summer (Gen. xix, 23). It 
was then the Lord overthrew the cities of Sodom — winter was 
succeeded by summer, and the Lord (atmosphere) rained down 
from heaven "lire and brimstone" (thunder and lightning, 
these usually making their appearance at the close of winter) 
upon Sodom. But Lot's wife (Iscah = who looks back), poor 
woman, looked back (Yirgo setting headlong, and facing the 
earth), she couldn't help it, and was turned at once into " a pillar 
of salt," i. e., she went down into the briny sea.f 

After this, Lot (the hidden one) and his two daughters 
(Yirgo at the two equinoxes) dwelt in a cave in the mountains 
(the night hemisphere in summer), for he feared to dwell in 
Zoar (Gen. xix, 30). Here, following the example of his illus- 
trious predecessor Noah, he got drunk. His two daughters, 
very unlike Noah's two pious sons, took a course the opposite 
of theirs, and the result was two sons — Moab (Aquarius) and 
Ben-ammi = the son of Aries = the summer solstice, being the 
same as Ishmael and Isaac4 

But let us return to look after Abraham, who, in the mean- 
while had gone " to his place," the summer solstice, astro- 
logically the Sun's home (Gen. xviii, 33). The word here 
rendered " his place," is literally his rising up (mkmo), hence 
I translate summer solstice, as the context requires this sense. 

* Ten men (ten plagues) was the smallest number for whose sake Abraham asked the- 
Lord to spare Sodom. He did not ask that the city might be saved for the sake of five, 
the true number. Indeed, had he done so, his request would have infallibly been denied: 
the city was doomed anyhow. 

t "That they (Sodom and Gomorrah) were submerged, we have no historical record 
whatever; and the whole tenor both of the history and of geological evidence is directly 
opposed to such an hypothesip. ,, — Tristram's Land of Moab, p. 344. 

% "Cinyras (=sorrow=Lot) king of Babylonia, it is said, had criminal intercourse with 
his daughter, Myrrha, while in a state of intoxication; the consequence of which was the 
birth of Adonis (the winter sun)."— Faber, Pag. Idol, vol. ii, p. 259. This myth is fully 
related in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book X. It is also noticed by other authors, but the 
parallel is carefully kept out of sight. 



ABRAHAM AND SAKAH. 83 

Abraham journeyed thence South, and " dwelt between Kadesh 
and Shur" (the two solstices) and sojourned in Gerar (wash- 
pot = the rainy season). Gerar is also synonymous with Moab — 
" Moab is my wash-pot " (Ps. lx, 8). Here in Gerar, in the 
wash-pot, or rainy season ; Egypt or winter, Abraham repeated 
the story that Sarah was his sister, but Abimelech (father-king), 
who is the same as Pharaoh (the winter sun), and who had 
taken Abraham at his word, still proving incorruptible, sent 
Sarah back to him untouched, with .a sharp reproof for his ter- 
giversation. So God healed Abimelech and his household, and 
they bare ; — the original don't say " children " ; this is an 
interpolation. The meaning is that summer followed winter, 
and the earth bore its usual crops.* 

Sarah, by the slight change in her name, had so improved 
in her health (which had heretofore been too untoward to take 
upon her the most interesting, as well as the most important, 
duties of the household, which consequently aforetime she had 
assigned to her handmaid Hagar) that she was now able, 
although she " had ceased to be after the manner of women," 
to take upon her the entire duties of her homestead. After 
the birth of Isaac (summer), Hagar and Ishmael (winter) were 
cast forth to wander in the wilderness of Beer-sheba (Gen. xxi, 
14). That is, winter Jled on the approach of summer ; and 
could only be thought of as recurring at the end of summer; 
hence, Hagar and Ishmael wander in the wilderness of Beer- 
sheba (the seventh month, when winter would again return), 
only to be thought of, and provided for during summer. 

Poor Hagar and poor Ishmael. " The water was spent in 
their bottle " (Gen. xxi, 15), i. e., the rainy season was over — 
spring had come, and Hagar cast her baby " under one of the 
shrubs," and went and sat down over against him a good way 
off, as it were a bow-shot " (v. 16). That is, as the Sun (Isaac) 
rises in Aries, winter (Ishmael) is ended, and Yirgo (Hagar) 



*It seems odd that God thought it necessary to heal Abimelech after he had proved 
himself completely incorruptible. He had entertained his old friend Abraham'6 beautiful 
wife in his house five months, and never during all this time had he manifested the least 
desire to corrupt her. Where in all Christendom can Abimelech's equal, in this respect, 
be found? Not one Christian priest in ten thousand could or would have withstood such 
a temptation. God or no God! 



84 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

has set — gone below the western horizon (see the zodiac). 
Thus, she is opposite Aries, and has between herself and Aries 
inclusive, one half the Sun's ecliptic for her " bow-shot," and 
is a good way off — as far as she can get. 

Now, whether summer or winter expire, a resurrection of 
one or the other is sure to follow ; hence Hagar cast her son, at 
the end of winter, under one of the shrubs (the spring equinox). 
In due time, however, " God (Aries setting in the fall) heard 
the voice of the lad " (v. 17), and " opened Hagar's eyes " (v. 19), 
i. e., the Sun entered Yirgo, when she saw a well of water (the 
former rain of October, Yirgo and Scorpio being in sextile 
aspect). She now refilled her bottle and gave the lad drink 
(v. 19) ; " G-od was with the lad " (v. 20). Of course he was, 
for Aries, being a night constellation in winter, was with the 
lad (winter). Finally, God (Aries) takes care of the lad, and 
being himself an archer, made an archer of the lad, who came 
and dwelt in Paran = El Paran = Ram's cave= summer. 

But Abimelech (Father-king, so called probably because he 
presided over the month in which the Sun, our Savior, is born), 
and Phicol (All-month = the winter winds), seeing that God 
was with Abraham in all that he did,* proposed an arrange- 
ment by which all might be benefited. Abraham gladly 
accepted the offer, which, on his part he ratified by an oath. 
Abimelech closed the contract simply by an affirmation. The 
reason was he could not swear if he would, because he was an 
infidel. Abraham could and did swear, i. e., he sevened, 
because he had seven houses, or months. Abimelech having 
but five months, could only five. Indeed, all know that 
swearing is a faculty peculiar to Christians. Neither Satan, 
nor any of his family, has ever been accused of swearing. If 
so, " though they say, The Lord liveth, surely they swear 
falsely " (Jer. v, 2). 

But Abraham, having missed a well of water which some- 
body had " violently taken away," reproved Abimelech (Gen. 
xxi, 25). But Abimelech declared (he didn't swear) "he could 

* As God, or Aries, apparently makes the entire circuit of the heavens during the 
year, he was, of course, ever present, with Abraham (the Sun) in all that he did, whether 
good or evil. " I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil " dsa. 
xlv. 7). Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? (Amos ill . 6.) 



ABRAHAM AND SARAH. 85 

not tell who did this thing, nor had he heard of it but to-day" 
(v. 26). I wish our Bible-men would tell us how this well was 
" violently taken away." This secret might put money into 
many an Illinois farmer's pocket during our dry seasons. I 
suspect, however, that this well had reference to the rainy 
season, which was removed by reason of the precession of the 
equinoxes, causing Abraham to lose on one end of his territory, 
while he gained as much on the other. But this Abraham, like 
many of his followers, could not see ; he could see but one 
side — his own. Abimelech was much the honester man. 

But this thing had to be settled. So Abraham took seven 
— he began to swear again — ewe-lambs, typical of the seven 
productive months, for a witness unto himself (what did the 
lambs know about the well?) that I have digged this well. 
" Wherefore, he called that place Beer-sheba" (v. 31). So it 
turned out after all that " this well " was only a " place," not 
a well — the well being the rainy season, was on Abimelech's 
domain, where it remains to this very day. Having agreed as 
to their respective territories, Abimelech and Phicol returned 
to the land of the Philistines, trusting to Abraham to set up 
their land-mark, which I suspect was a stake marked no. seven, 
in large letters! After this Abraham, having called there (at 
the end of summer) in the name of the Lord (not on, as in 
the translation), on the obscure God {El olam), i. e., Aries 
during winter, " sojourned in the Philistines' land many days " 
(v. 34). 

We now approach the most remarkable act of Abraham's 
whole life — the attempted assassination of his only son, Isaac; 
and this simply by the command of God ! The analogy 
between this and the crucifixion of our Savior, is readily seen : 
but of this in its proper place. Having prepared all things 
necessary and marched within three days' (three months') 
journey of the place pointed out by God (Aries setting), he 
left his two servants (the spring equinox and summer solstice) 
with his ass,* while he (the Sun) and Isaac (summer) went 

* The ass, a star so named, is in Cancer, where the summer solstice occurs. This ass, 
of course, the Sun always, as he passes Cancer, leaves behind. Our Savior (the Sun) rode 
into Jerusalem (summer solstice) on this very ass, and one other in the same constellation, 
called by the sacred writer " the foal of an ass." Balaam failed to get his ass beyond, and 



86 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

forward. Poor Isaac wondered where was the sacrifice, but 
his father assured him all w r as right — that God (Aries setting) 
would provide it ; and so he did ; for he, God, the Earn, was 
the sacrifice and Isaac as well. "And Abraham stretched forth 
his hand and took the knife to slay his son" (Gen. xxii, 10). 
Wonder what the poor boy thought of his pious daddy, when 
he saw the glittering blade poised above him ! But the Lord 
called, and Abraham looked, and " behold a Ram caught in 
a thicket by his horns" (Aries was then setting head-first), 
which he seized and offered instead of his son. Thus, as 
the Sun went down below the fall equinox, were the Lord 
(summer), Abraham (the Sun), God (Aries), and Isaac and 
all the rest of 'em sacrificed and pitched into Hell (winter) 
together ! * 

Soon after this wonderful tragedy, Sarah died in that fam- 
ous city Kirjath-arba=four cities = the four cardinal points in 
the Sun's ecliptic — "the same is Hebron'' (Gen. xxiii, 2). 
Dr. Wm. Smith {Old Test. Hist, p. 88) believes "Abraham 
must have returned from Beer-sheba to his old home" at 
Sarah's death. The Doctor is right, for Abraham couldn't see 
his wife die unless he was at home — at Hebron, the Son's 

brought an everlasting stigma on his name because of his brutal treatment of his ass — 
" the ass rebuked him" (Num. xxiii, 28). 

Angelo de Gubernatis, in his recent work on Zoological Mythology, vol. i, p. 377, says 
of this mythical ass: il lt is certain that it existed in the heavens; it is certain that it flies 
in the air like a valiant warrior; that it terrifies its enemies in the sky with its terrible 
voice; that, in a word, it was a real and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover, 
that considered under another aspect, it not only throws down the heroes, but carries 
them down to Hell, serves the infernal monsters, and is found in connection with the 
treasures of Hell." What a round-about-way this author takes to avoid telling his readers 
directly that this mythical ass is a star in the zodiacal constellation Cancer! Doubtless 
he would have said so at once had he not stood in awe of the priests. Cancer sets when 
the Sun rises in Capricorn. It is then found amongst the monsters of Hell. In summer 
Cancer is closely related to the Lord of Heaven — the Sun. 

* The word sacrifice comes from the Lat. sacer=secret=hidden=\ost; and faeere=fo 
make; i.e., sacrifice means to make sacred=hidden = secret=:lost (Andrews' 1 Lat. Lex.) 
Thus, if a person throw anything into the sea, lose it. or in any way dispose of it so that 
it cannot be recovered, it is sacrificed, corered itp, hidden and lost. This seems to have 
been the original idea; and the idea set forth in Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac; in 
God's sacrifice of his only son; nay, even in the sacrifice of God himself when "he cut 
off his own head " (see Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iv, p. 287, etc. etc.) 

These fictions, as I have shown so far, all appear simple enough when understood; 
but priests, seeing their advantage, and making use of it, converted these mythological 
tales into the actual slaying of men and animals, the former to insure their dominion over 
their ignorant fellow-men, and the latter to secure a fat living for themselves at the 
expense of their dupes. 



ABRAHAM AND SARAH. 87 

crossing at the spring equinox ; for Sarah died when she went 
below the horizon, or set in the west.* 

Abraham, who, like the Son of Man (Sun of Earth), " had 
not where to lav his head," now bought '.* the cave of Mach- 
pelah (the winding or spiral way, or Sun's course in the 
ecliptic), wherein he buried his wife. His purchase was from 
Ephron, the Hittite. — Ephron, literally fawn-sun, so called, it 
may be, in allusion to the warm summer nights, when the 
■cervidse produce their fawns. Hittite, an epithet of Ephron, 
denoting terror or dread, i. e., the night, because he was the 
genius of the night, and by extension of the idea, of the 
winter also — both subjects of dread and terror to many. 
Thus, Sarah may be seen in her sepulchral vault on any fine 
night in April, May or June. Here it was, then, in the land 
of Ham, in the land of Canaan, in the cave of the field of 
Machpelah, before Mamre = summer, that Abraham buried 
Sarah, This field (the two hemispheres properly joined or 
coaptated) and the cave (night hemisphere of summer) that is 
therein were made sure to Abraham for a possession of a 
burial-place by the sons of Heth (dread). (Gen. xxiii, 20.) 

After Sarah's death and burial Abraham began to think of 
his latter end. He, therefore, proceeded to marry off his son 
Isaac. By the Lord's guidance, Isaac was soon fitted with a 
wife. Rebekah (one snared) was his wife's name. Snared 
she surely is, for, behold, she is caught in the famous snare, 
the zodiac Having been proved by Adam, Cain, Noah, 
and his own father, she will doubtless make an excellent wife 
for Isaac ! Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel (God's 
house, or Aries, or the Ram's house = spring equinox). Bethuel 
was the son of Nahor (Aries being the first constellation after 
winter). She resided in Haran (see Zodiac), and was therefore 
a Canaanite. Eliezer (Helping-Ram = Aries setting) followed 

* The Horoscope of the astrologers was always in the East, where Aries is found at 
the end of the year. Therefore, as Sarah died when Virgo set, the Sun (Abraham > must 
necessarily appear at the East in or near Aries, in order to see his wife die. 

In the case of Rebekah, soon to be noticed, the myth takes a different form. Eliezer 
(helping Ram) passes over from the East to the western equinox. Looking thence across 
the Zodiac, he sees Rebekah by a well (the rainy season of October). Having watered his 
camels (the clouds), he snares Rebekah, and passing through the winter hemisphere, 
brings her before Isaac, when she alights from off her camel, i. e., gets below the horizon 
in the west, where Sarah died. 



88 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Rebekah " down to the well," where she filled his pitcher and 
gave him drink (Gen. xxiv, 17, 18). The well was the rainy 
season of autumn, for Isaac was in the South country (the 
winter hemisphere). After watering his camels (the clouds),* 
or rather after Rebekah had watered them, Eliezer made haste 
to secure his prize. He therefore at once put the nose-ring in 
Rebekah's nose,f and set his face homeward leading her after 
him. In the meanwhile, Isaac came from the way of the well 
lahairoi (Beer-sheba) to meet her, for he dwelt in the South 
country (Gen. xxiv, 62), i. e., the Sun was in Scorpio. ~No\v 
note their position : Isaac (the Sun, is just below the equator ; 
Rebekah (Virgo), just above it ; and the place of meeting is 
the spring equinox. Winter having passed, Isaac (the Sun) is 
found at eventide, i. e., at the end of the year, in Aries, while 
Rebekah (Virgo), has gone a little below the equator, i. e., she 
has alighted from her camel, on the opposite side of the zodiac:}: 
Here Isaac placed her in his mother Sarah's tent. Thus 
Rebekah was made the wife of Isaac by Eliezer (the helping 
Ram), Abraham's servant, in direct violation of the fearful 
oath he had made to his master (Gen. xxiv, 2, 3). However, 
Abraham was in his dotage, and overlooked it. 

Having thus cared for Isaac, and ready to give up the 
ghost, Abraham, in his dotage, took to wife Keturah (bond- 
woman =Hagar), the very woman he had so recently buried. 
By her he had six sons (the six winter constellations). Tra- 
dition says Abraham sent these six sons away " that they 
might not dwell near Isaac, lest his greatness should swallow 
them up, and built them a city of iron, with walls of iron (the 
symbol of winter) ; but that the walls were so high that the 
light of the sun could not penetrate the streets, and that 
therefore he set in them diamonds and pearls (stars) to illumine 

* Indra, the Hindu Lord, rides upon an elephant (the great thunder cloud), and thus 
gets the name of '•'■lightning-sender, thunder-bearer.''' (Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 261.) 

Sometimes, as Mahadeva=the Great-God, he sits quietly on a tiger's skin; thus denot- 
ing the summer sky when overspread hy the broken clouds. {Ibid., p. 63.) 

t The reading in our common translation is: " And I put the earring upon her face " 
— a pretty place to put an earring. This language betrays the fraudulent translation. 
Mine is the true one. 

X I forgot to say in its proper place that Eebekah, when alighting from her camel, 
put a vail (the night hemisphere) over her face; and that Isaac was comforted by his wife- 
after his mother's death, i. e., that summer was come. 



ABRAHAM AND SARAH. 89 

the iron city." (Gould's Legends of the Pat. and Proph., p. 
203.) 

At last Abraham being old and full of years, died and was 
buried in that mysterious cave Machpelah by his sons Isaac 
and Ishmael= summer and winters the year ! 



CHAPTER VII. 

ISAAC AND REBEKAH. 

IE" this legend of Isaac and Eebekah we have a somewhat 
altered repetition of Abraham and Sarah, whose connec- 
tion as husband and wife under the first form of these names 
— Abram and Sarai — is simply alluded to in Gen. xi, 29. In 
its present form the matter is gone into in Gen. xxiv, with 
considerable detail, the result being what has been styled " a 
pattern marriage." 

"Abraham was old and well stricken in age" {gone in days 
is the sense of the original), i. e., the year was near its end, 
when he called the eldest servant of his house, Eliezer (Ram- 
helps = Aries, the first of the zodiacal constellations, which 
accompanies the Sun during summer ; hence the name). This 
Eliezer was of Damascus (the East). Having traversed the 
half of the zodiac during summer, he had just reached the fall 
equinox, when Abraham said unto him : " Put thy hand 
under my thigh " (Gen. xxiv, 2), i. e., pass from the summer 
into the winter hemisphere : the winter being typified by the 
lower half of the man (see cut in almanac). " And the servant 
took ten camels, and went to Mesopotamia (the horizon), unto 
the city of Nahor (winter) (Gen. xxiv. 10). Here Eliezer 
(Aries) encamped without the city by a well of water in the 
evening (at the end of summer, when Aries sets) ; when the 
women go out to draw water (when the stars of Yirgo pass into 
the upper hemisphere and the rainy season comes on). 

" The damsel was fair to look upon and a virgin " (Yirgo). 
Having found Eebekah. the predestined wife of Isaac, in Abra- 
ham's father's (Terah's) house, where he was directed to go 
(Gen. xxiv, 38), and which he knew by. signs indicating the 
rainy season, Eliezer put " the earring upon her faca" (" the 



ISAAC AND KEBEKAH. 91 

■nosering in her nose," in the Hebrew), i. e., he snared 
Rebekah (as indicated by her name), and proceeded by the 
way of the " south country " to conduct her home to Isaac. 
Before setting off, however, he asked whose daughter she was. 
Rebekah said her father's name was Bethuel (the House-ram 
= Aries at the spring equinox = the Ram's house), and in- 
formed him they had " straw and provender " (the winter 
store), and room to lodge in (winter). So Eliezer bowed his 
head (Aries sets head first) and worshiped the Lord (went out 
•of summer). Here he soon learned that Rebekah had a 
brother Laban (winter), who, on his approach, bid him " come 
in ; " so in went Eliezer, when he found " straw and proven- 
der" for his camels (Gen. xxiv, 32). Eliezer now "popped 
the question," but Laban and Bethuel answered: "We cannot 
speak unto thee, bad or good." The weather was neither cold 
(bad) nor hot (good), but "lukewarm" (Rev. iii, 15). So 
Eliezer, having presented the "jewels of silver, and jewels of 
gold, and raiment " (see Josh, vii, 21) ,to Rebekah,* feasted all 
night (winter), and went home the next morning (spring) and 
introduced Rebekah to Isaac (the Sun), her future husband, 
who was walking in the field (zodiac) at eventide (the close of 
the year). Isaac kindly received her, placed her in his 
mother's tent and was comforted — warm weather came (Gen. 
xxiv, 67). 

After Ishmael and Isaac had buried their father, the first 
was lost sight of. His place must thence be provided for. 
This was done after this manner : In his youth, Isaac (laugh- 
ter) personated summer; in his old age he became blind, and 
then personated winter — the Philistines put out his eyes. 
Rebekah, like Sarai, during the fore part of her married life 
{beginning of summer) was barren, but at the end of summer 
she, like Sarah, became prolific, as we will soon see. 

" And it came to pass after the death of Abraham," that 
the gods (Elohim = Aries during summer) blessed his son 

* The "jewels of gold and silver " were symbols of spring and summer; the first of 
spring, because then the harvests, the most valuable of the year's crops, were gathered; 
the second of summer, because its products were not so valuable as the cereals. The 
"raiment" of course denoted winter, the last of their three seasons, and in Josh, vii, 21, 
is called the Babylonish or winter garment. 



92 THE SCIEKOE OF THE BIBLE. 

Isaac ; and Isaac dwelt by the well lahai roi (the end of sum- 
mer) (Gen. xxv, 11). It was now that " Isaac entreated the 
Lord (summer) for his wife (Virgo) because she was barren, 
and the Lord was entreated of him," i. e., the Sun being in 
Virgo, the crops were ripe. This was precisely the time 
when Sarai gave Abram her handmaid Hagar " to be his 
wife," i. e., it was when the Sun and Virgo conjoin, or lie 
down together. 

Thus, Rebekah conceived and bore two sons — Esau, rough, 
hairy = winter ; and Jacob, smooth = summer. The latter 
came forth clinging to the heels of his brother, as summer 
always comes forth, or follows upon the heels of winter. Re- 
bekah, therefore, included both Sarai and Hagar. 

" And because of the famine in the land (this famine always 
happened in the winter), Isaac went unto Abimelech (Father- 
king), king of the Philistines (they of the ancient land— winter), 
unto Gerar (water-pot = October). Gen. xxvi, 1. Isaac didn't 
go down into Egypt (v. 2) ; he went unto Gerar (rainy season), 
which is the same as Egypt, unto Abimelech, where he so- 
journed (v. 6) ; his object being to obtain food. In case of 
obedience, the Lord promised, as he did Abraham, his father 
(Gen. xxii, 17), to make his seed as the stars of heaven, i. e., 
to restore him to summer. So Isaac dwelt in Gerar (v. 6). 
Here he undertook to play off the old trick, his father had 
twice before him enacted, but Abimelech caught him sporting 
with his wife Rebekah (Gen. xxvi, 8), and at once charged the 
lie upon him. Isaac excused himself as his father had done. 
The Sun (Isaac) and Virgo (Rebekah) come in conjunction 
about the close of summer, and hence it was that " Isaac 
sported with Rebekah" 

However, " Isaac sowed in that land (the sowing season), 
and received in the same year, an hundred-fold ; and the Lord 
(the next spring) blessed him " ( v. 12). 

The old difficulty of the well, which Abraham and Abime- 
lech had settled aforetime, now came up again. Here, as in 
his father's case, Isaac had all his own way. Abimelech was no 
way inclined to be quarrelsome. The well was the same, Beer- 
sheba. So, as Isaac's servants and the herdsmen of Gerar 



ISAAC AND KEBEKAH. 93 

strove together, " he digged again the (three) wells of water 
which the Philistines had stopped up." The first, he called 
Esek (strife=the time hetween winter and summer) ; the second, 
Situali, (opposition = winter solstice, which is opposite the 
summer solstice) ; and the third he called Eehoboth (rooms = 
summer months), for the Lord hath made us room, and we 
shall be fruitful.'" 

From Rehoboth (summer), Isaac (the Sun) went to Beer- 
sheba (October), v. 23. Here, at Gerar, he met his old ene- 
mies — Abimelech (king of winter), Ahuzzoth (winter), and 
Phicol (all-month = the winter winds), who proposed an alliance 
with him. Isaac was offish at first, but was soon conciliated, 
when he made a feast (the ingathering) for his guests, and 
" they did eat and drink " (v. 30) ; after which they departed 
in peace. Isaac's servants (the zodiacal constellations) now 
digged a well, and he called it Shebah (seven) ; it is the same 
as Beer-sheba. 

Esau (his elder son = winter) now married Judith (Jewess 
= Virgo near the fall equinox) and Bashemath (fragrant = Vir- 
go at the spring equinox), daughter of Elon, the Hittite— 
Aries in winter ; " Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and 
Rebekah " (v. 35), i. e., winter followed summer. 

At length Isaac, having become blind (winter came on), 
and perceiving that his days were drawing near to a close, 
directed Esau (winter) to "take some venison," and prepare 
" savory meat," that he might receive the blessing, which was 
his by right of primogeniture, from his father ; but Jacob (sum- 
mer), who had previously, because of the necessity of his poor 
brother (for winter must eat), unfairly extorted Esau's birth- 
right, now managed, by the aid of his deceitful mother, to 
deprive him of the blessing (the summer crops) also. Though 
we may be unwilling to justify the means by which Jacob 
obtained the blessing, yet to him (Esau) it was a matter of 
necessity ; for people must eat in winter as well as in summer 
— Sarai must be built up through Hagar. 

Here we have a beautiful illustration of that middle state 

* There can be no doubt but Abraham dug these same wells, though the circum- 
stance is not mentioned before. 



94 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

between savagism and civilization — between the hunting and 
the agricultural life.* 

At length Isaac, the Summer, came to his journey's end — 
died and was buried by his two sons Esau and Jacob (the 
year), in the old burial place — in^/$<z=Kirjath-arba — which 
is in Hebron (the Sun's ecliptic), with its four towers, which 
are the four cardinal points. Of Pebekah's death and burial, 
we are not informed. Dr. Smith says : " it has been conjec- 
tured (theology has always conjectured) that she died during 
Jacob's sojourn in Padan Aram," i. e., in Mesopotamia = the 
middle river = the spring equinox. {Bib. Diet., art Itebekah.) 
This " conjecture " of the Doctor's, though only a conjecture, is 
doubtless correct ; Padan Aram being the spring equinox, 
where Pebekah dies (Yirgo sets). She was buried where all 
her ancestors were, in Kirjath-arba — the Sun's ecliptic. She 
will next turn up as Rachel, the second wife of Jacob. 

On the division of their father's property, tradition relates 
that Esau accepted the personal, while Jacob inherited the 
real, estate. (Gould's Legends, p. 253.) This affords us another 
clue to what is meant by these personifications. — personal 
property being more available in winter, and real estate in 
summer. 

* In the Hindu story found in the Ramayana, Kaikeyi aids Bharata, her son, to sup- 
plant Rama. (See J. Talboys Wheeler's Hist, of India, vol. ii, p. 114.) The two legends 
are exact parallels the one of the other, or so nearly so as to be readily identified, both 
having a common origin. The Hindu legend, however, is given more in detail, and in 
grace and beauty far surpasses that of the Hebrews. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JACOB AND RACHEL. 

EEBEKAH, after the usual period of barrenness, at last con- 
ceived and brought forth Esau and Jacob. The latter (heel- 
catcher = summer), having supplanted his poor brother Esau 
(rough = hairy = winter), and cheated him, as we have seen, of 
his inheritance, went out from Beer-sheba (end of summer) and 
lighted upon a certain place (winter), where he tarried all night 
(all winter), because the Sun was set (into the winter hemis- 
phere), (Gen. xxviii, 11). Here, having slept his sleep (the 
" deep sleep " of Adam), using the stones of the place for pil- 
lows (the zodiacal constellations were designated by stones — 
Josh, iv, 9), during which he dreamed he saw that wonderful 
ladder* (the zodiac) extending from earth to heaven, with the 
angels of God (the zodiacal constellations) ascending and de- 
scending upon it, he awoke and exclaimed : " Surely this is 
the house of God (Aries) and this (the spring equinox) is the 
gate of heaven." Jacob got up early, and^et up the stone he 
last used for a pillow, for a pillar, and called the place Beth-el, 
i. e., the house of God = Aries, or the Ram of March ; but the 
name of that city was Luz (departure) at the first. (Gen. xxviii, 
19.) Thence Jacob went on in his journey of the year, and came 
unto the people of the East (Sichem, his father's first halting- 
place). Here he found a well of water (the latter rain of 
spring). Having watered his animals, he inquired for Laban 
(winter), his future father-in-law, pressed forward, and when he 

* The Rev. George Stanley Faber thinks this "was not a ladder, but a pyramid of 
.seven steps on every side of it " {Pag. Idol., vol. 3, p. 623). Doubtless the Rev. gentleman 
is right, as the ladder reached from earth (winter solstice) to heaven (spring equinox), 
which would require seven, or more, steps or climates, according to the latitude of the 
place. This idea would refer us back to the Tower of Babel, that great instrument by 
which our ancestors ascended, as ourselves still do every year, from the depths of hell or 
winter, up to the confines of heaven or summer. See Babel.) 



96 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

was coine unto the land of Haran (the months July, August, 
September, October), he met Eachel {ewe, the second of these 
months), and kissed her, i. e., the Sun and Virgo came in con- 
junction. (Gen. xxix, 11.) 

Thus, having made love to Eachel, he must next obtain 
her father's consent before he could proceed further. This was 
an easy matter ; for " when Laban (winter) heard the tidings, 
he ran to meet him,* and brought him to his house," i. e., the 
Sun (Jacob) passed from Yirgo, the last of the zodiacal con- 
stellations in the upper hemisphere into and was embraced by 
the winter hemisphere. Here Laban set him to work. Hav- 
ing served the seven (the sacred number being used instead of 
the true number six) years (months) agreed upon, as Jacob had 
supposed, for Rachel, Laban, instead of fulfilling on his part, 
foisted Leah (weak-eyed = Yirgo in winter) upon him (Gen. 
xxix, 29). Jacob did not discover the cheat until he arose the 
next morning (spring equinox). He then reproached Laban 
for his dishonesty, but Laban remained immovable. Jacob 
must serve other seven years (through the summer) before he 
could have Rachel. However, Jacob tricked the old gentle- 
man pretty well afterward for cheating him in his marriage 
contract, as we shall presently see. 

With Leah (winter) Jacob got Zilpah (dropping = the 
latter rain = spring), Leah's handmaid ; and with Rachel (ewe = 
nourisher), he got Bilhah (tottering = autumn), Rachel's hand- 
maid. Leah bore Jacob, Reuben, Simeon and Levi, and 
Judah ; Zilpah bore Gad and Asher; Bilhah, Rachel's hand- 
maid, bore him Dan and Naphtali, but Rachel herself remained 
barren. Because of this she envied her sister Leah, and said 
to Jacob, " Give me children, or else I die." But Jacob told 
her he was not God, and went about his business. After this, 
Leah bore him Isaachar, Zebulun and Dinah. However, after 
a while, Rachel was blessed with a son ; and she called his 
name Joseph, and said : " The Lord shall add to me another 
son." 

"With, this large family Jacob now proposed to return 
home, but was induced by special contract to remain with his 

* Ak the Nun approaches a constellation, the two seem to move toward each other. 



JACOB AND KACHEL. 97 

father-in-law until he had grown rich and powerful. Laban 
agreed at Jacob's suggestion, that after removing from the 
flocks all that were " speckled and spotted," he would give 
Jacob for his " hire " all the cattle that were afterward 
brought forth " ringstraked, speckled and spotted." This 
contract ended, Laban " set three days' journey between him- 
self and Jacob," i. e., three months, counting from the winter 
solstice, when the days begin to lengthen. From this point 
the Sun always sets out on his journey home — to the summer 
solstice. 

Jacob now (spring equinox), by the ingenious device of 
•" pilled rods " placed in the sight of the cattle, caused them 
to bring forth "ringstraked, speckled and spotted." "When 
the cattle were feeble (in winter) he put them (the rods) not 
in ; so the feeble were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's " 
{Gen. xxx, 42). Thus it was diamond cut diamond, and 
proved true what Jacob had previously told Rachel, " that he 
was more cunning than Laban, her father." (Gould's Legends, 
p. 222.) 

In this relation we have another of "the thousand and 
one " proofs of the Hindu origin of the Bible. The cattle are 
the clouds. They are likened to cattle because they send down 
upon the earth their refreshing and fertilizing rains. In the 
various mythologies of the world, the clouds are often referred 
to as apples, sheep, cows, eagles, fingers of the earth, maidens, 
ships, swans, etc., according to their fancied shapes and the 
functions attributed to them. (See Cox's Myth, of the Aryan 
Nations.) The Sun's rays, as we often see them streaking 
down through the interstices of the clouds, are the "pilled 
rods." The characteristics " ringstraked, speckled and spotted " 
well apply to the summer clouds — to the cirrus and the 
cumulus, and their modifications ; while the stratus, the more 
uniform, usually overspread the sky in winter. 

Having grown rich in children (zodiacal constellations) 
and cattle (the clouds) Jacob (the Sun) stole away unawares to 
Laban the Syrian (the Sun at the end of winter). Meanwhile 
Rachel had feloniously taken her father's God (Teraphim in 
Hebrew, from Terah, Abram's father). This word Teraphim 



98 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

is plural like Elohim, Cherubim, Seraphim, and like them is 
here used in a singular sense, meaning the earth. So soon as 
Laban had heard of their flight, he went in hot pursuit, over- 
taking them in Mount Gilead= witness-heap = Bethel = spring 
equinox. But God (Aries) had warned Laban "in a dream 
to speak not to Jacob either good or bad" (Gen. xxxi, 24). 
The parties thus met at the spring equinox — between winter 
= bad, and summer = good, and of course neither could say 
either good or bad. Laban, however, determined to recover, 
if possible, his lost Teraphim, commenced search, at the request 
of Jacob, " who knew not that Rachel had stolen it " (v. 32). 
Poor Laban was completely foiled, for having searched else- 
where in vain, he at last approached Rachel, who, having " the 
custom of women" upon her, retained her seat, and thus 
thwarted her father and kept his Gods ! The earth (Teraphim) 
and the constellation Yirgo (Rachel) were in conjunction. It 
may be noted, too, that it was near the time of the annunci- 
ation of the Virgin Mary, and also the season of love ! 

The search over, the parties, after a little altercation, made 
a covenant (the spring equinox), the same which the Lord 
(Sun) aforetime had made between God and Noah (Earth), 
and the same precisely which was and has been made both 
before and since annually. The same stone which Jacob had 
set up at the beginning of his previous year, was again set up 
for a pillar, and called this time, not Beth-el, but Goleed = 
witness-heap, and Mizpah = watch-tower (Gen. xxxi, 48, 49). 
These names indicate the same thing precisely — the spring- 
equinox. 

In the next chapter (xxxii), Jacob met "the angels* of 
God " at a certain place, which he named Mahanaim = the two 
camps, or hosts of God = the place where the two halves of 

* Abraham, as we have seen, saw these same angels, as he sat in his tent door in the 
heat of the day (summer solstice). Having treated them very handsomely, " he went with 
them to bring them on their way" down to Sodom (xviii, 16); where Lot, as he sat at the 
gate of Sodom (winter solstice), received them. Lot treated them with great consider- 
ation, but the people (the cold days) round about him behaved very boisterously; 
endeavoring to break into the good man's house to get at his guests — the angels. Lot, 
in his vain endeavor to pacify them, even offered " to bring his two daughters (Virgo at 
the two equinoxes) out unto them;" but this wouldn't do; they must get at the two 
angels. So the men, i. e., the angels, smote the besiegers with blindness, took Lot and 
his family and went away, leaving them to grope their way as they could. 



JACOB AND RACHEL. 99 

summer meet = the summer solstice. From this place he dis- 
patched messengers to his brother Esau, in the land of Seir — 
winter. Learning that Esau was approaching him with 400 
men (the four winter months), Jacob was greatly distressed, as 
well he might be after having cheated his poor brother so out- 
rageously. He instantly prepared for battle,* and like all 
conscience-smitten cowards, prayed to God for help. But as 
Esau, though suffering wrong, meant no wrong, the two 
brothers were soon reconciled, and after a great fuss and 
palaver separated — Esau to Mount Seir (Goat = Capricorn = 
winter solstice), in the lower hemisphere, or land of shivering 
(for Seir comes from a root which means to shiver), and Jacob 
went to Succoth = Tents = the summer months. After the 
parting of the two brothers, Jacob moved from Padan Aram 
= Mesopotamia = middle-river = spring equinox, to Shalem = 
peace = summer solstice. Here he bought a piece of land of the 
children of Hamor = the Ass, or two stars called the asses in 
the constellation Cancer, where he erected another altar which 
he named El-El oh e-Israel = God-the-God-of-Israel, or the Most 
High God = Aries in his zenith at sunrise, the Sun being in 
Cancer. Hence he is styled The Most High God, or, which is 
the same thing, The Most High Bam. 

It was at this very spot (summer solstice) that Hamer, the 
Hivite (Ass of life = the tree of life = midsummer), communed 
with Jacob (Sun in Cancer) concerning the defilement of 
Dinah, or Yirgo, by Shechem (Taurus), who was then just as 
far east of the Sun as Taurus was west of it. Shechem, it 
appears, had the year before, in going below the western equi- 
nox into the winter hemisphere, taken Dinah with him " and 
lay with her" (Gen. xxxiv, 2). Thus it was, Shechem ravished 
and humbled Dinah. To atone for this crime* Shechem was 
required, agreed to, and w T as circumcised, i. e., he finished his 
year by coming in conjunction with the Sun in the east. Not- 
withstanding Shechem had shown himself "more honorable 
than all the house of his father,'' Simeon and Levi (Pisces = 
Fishes), "on the third day (Sun in Cancer), when they were 
sore " (v. 25), took each his sword, and invading the city 

* He divided his people into two bands as did his father before him (Gen. xiv, 15), 



100 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

(winter) slew all the males (the winter months). At the same 
time they (Pisces setting) took Dinah out of Shechem's house 
(the place occupied by Taurus, the Sun being in Aries), and 
went out (v. 26). Jacob was much dissatisfied with Simeon 
and Levi, because of their conduct, for it was like to bring him 
into trouble with the Canaanites and Perizzites, as winter was 
now at hand, when he and his house would be destroyed — 
summer w^ould pass away (v. 30). 

This storj- is again repeated in Chap, xxxv, but this time it 
differs widely from any of the preceding. Add to this, that in 
our English translation, the sense of the original is so badly 
perverted that it is impossible for the reader to obtain a clear 
idea of its meaning. F3 will, therefore, permit me to adhere 
strictly to the letter of t. :■ Hebrew text, for the first few verses 
at least. The narrator passes quickly from the spring, over to 
the fall equinox : " And the Gods (Elohim or summer Earns) 
said unto Jacob, arise, go over to Beth-el, and dwell there, and 
make thee an altar to the God (El == Aries in winter) that 
appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau, 
thy brother " (v. 1). Thus, the Beth-el here spoken of is the 
fall equinox. See what follows: "And Jacob said to his 
household and all that were with him : Put away the Ciods 
(Elohl = Gods' of summer), which now appear among you, and 
cause yourselves to shine (i. e., let the summer become winter 
stars), and let your garments (the vegetation) be changed" (v. 2). 
So Jacob went as desired, unto Beth-el or Luz, in the land of 
Canaan, where he built an altar to the God (El = Aries in 
winter) which answered him in his distress (v. 3).* His house- 
hold gave him the Gods (Elohi = the summer Bams) and the 
earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak (elah=z& ram) which 
was in Shechem, i. e., as the Sun went below the equator in 
autumn, the summer days ended (v. 4). As Jacob's company 
journeyed on, the weakness of the Gods (Elohim) was upon 
the cities round about them (the days were all the while grow- 
ing shorter), and they (the cities, etc. — the summer months) 
did not pursue the sons of Jacob (v. 5), but remained just 
where he left them. However, Jacob soon " came to Luz (de- 

* That is, during the winter before. 



JACOB AND EACHEL. 101 

part ure) which is in the land of Canaan. 1 ' This description 
designates which Lnz is meant.* Here he built an altar and 
called the place El-beth-el, because here the Gods (Elohhn) 
uncovered his God {Eli), i. e., the God he had when he fled 
from the face of his brother, and winter came on (v. 7). Here 
let the reader bear in mind that Aries during the six summer 
months is above the equator with the Sun, hence Elohlm; that 
during the following six months the two are disjoined, being 
on opposite sides of the earth, hence El. 

Here at Luz, at the fall equinox, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse 
died, poor woman, and was buried " beneath Beth-el under an 
oak," i. e., under an oak tree beneath God's house /—a curious 
place of sepulture ; well, it don't matter, so that the good lad} r 
was decently inhumed. Deborah bore the same relation to 
R bekah that Hagar did to Sarai. All are the same, Virgo as 
she appears at different seasons, in different parts of the 
heavens. Thus the Ram (Aries) sets in the fall, when, the 
honey season being over, Deborah (the Bee = Virgo) rises 
before the Sun (the latter being in Libra), is blotted out by the 
Sun's superior rays, i. e., dies. She was buried as above related, 
her burial-place being called Allon-baehuth, or the weeping 
Ram, because the Ram Aries was setting when the rainy 
season was about to begin (v. 8). 

Again : God (Aries in his zenith, and in quartile aspect with 
the Sun), appeared to Jacob, as he left Padan-aram (the equinox 
of spring), and told him, " thy name shall not any more he 
called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name, and he called his 
name Is/ael." 

At the beginning of this chapter (xxxv), Jacob set up his 
altar, at the fall equinox, unto El, Aries during winter, as 
directed by the Elohim, the Sun-Aries of Summer. Now, 
the Sun being at the summer solstice, the four spring constel- 
lations are wholly risen. These belong to Jacob. The next 
four, viz. : Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, are to follow, and here 
they receive their collective name Israel. 

In Gen. xxxii. 24, we find "Jacob was left alone," and while 

* ,\e there were two equinoxes or places of departure, so there were two places called 
Luz=departure. 



102 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

alone 9 he wrestled with an angel (Aries) until he obtained the 
blessings harvest. Here, Jacob had just crossed the Jabbok= 
the out-pouring=end of the year at the spring equinox, when 
he began his wrestling match with the Lord's angel, which he 
continued until " the breaking of the day," i. e., until after 
midsummer, about which time the angel took " the hip-lock " 
of Jacob, and dislocated his thigh. Having got the better of 
Jacob, the angel asked to be excused, but Jacob hung on, and 
said, " I will not let thee go except thou bless me." The 
angel then asked: "What is thy name?" "And he said, 
Jacob." "Very well : " Thy name shall be called no more 
Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with the 
Gods and with men, and hast prevailed" i. e., thou shalt get 
the blessing. Jacob now asked the angel's name, but instead 
of the name got the blessing. ~By this Jacob knew the place 
and its name Penuel, i. e., the face of God, or Aries setting 
opposite the Sun. Passing Penuel, Jacob halted upon his 
thigh. See " thighs " in the frontispiece of your almanac. 
Thus are we told more than once that Leo, Virgo, Libra and 
Scorpio are collectively called Israel.* 

Having thus got his new name, God again spoke unto 
Jacob, saying: "I am God Almighty" (El shaddai— the sum- 
mer or nourishing Earn) ; " be fruitful and multiply," etc. (v. 
11). Jacob now, having the promise of the land that belonged 
to his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, set up a pillar and called it 
Beth-el. Thence he journeyed to Ephrath (summer solstice), 
which was but a short distance from Beth-el. Here, when 
Pachel died and was buried, Jacob set up a pillar over her 
grave, " which remains unto this day." Israel now spread 
his tent beyond the tower of Edar (the flock = the summer 
solstice), thus taking in the four months just assigned to him. 
Soon after, " while Israel dwelt in that land " (beyond the 
tower of Edar), " Keuben " (Aquarius) " went and lay with 
Bilhah, his father's concubine ; and Israel heard it " (v. 22). 
That is, Aquarius set opposite Virgo, and, both being below 

* Leo rises in the east with the Sun at the beginning of the ancient summer; and sets 
in the west at the middle of the ancient winter. These are the two solstices. (See 
7,0'liac.) 



JACOB AND RACHEL. 103 

the equator, lay with her. Besides, he (Reuben = Aquarius) 
was in the same place exactly which Virgo occupied seven 
months later, when the sun came to the first degree of Aries — 
where Jacob or the sun comes in unto, i. e., opposite, Rachel 
(Yirgo) every spring. He (Reuben) therefore, when his father 
was in bed with Bilhah (Sun in Yirgo), his concubine, " went 
up to his father's couch" — Rachel's bed. See Zodiac. 

Before closing this article, it may be noted that this wres- 
tling bout of Jacob with the angel of the Lord, has its parallel 
in other than the Jewish mythology : 

" The Phoenician Hercules himself wrestled with. Typhon 
(the Sun at the meridian) in the sand, as Jacob-Israel did with 
Elohim in the dust. Hercules, like Jacob, was wounded in the 
thigh ; and, like the son of Isaac, received the name of ' Palai- 
mon,' the wrestler." (Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iv, p. 212.) 

" Hercules-Pal am edes once wrestled with Zeus on the sand, 
and had his hip sprained. He was called in the Canaanitish 
dialect, Ysrael, Israel, i. e., the Struggle with El or God. 11 
(Ibid., p. 284.) 



CHAPTER IX. 

JACOB AND HIS SONS. 

THUS far we have seen that the constant theme of the Bible 
has been the phenomena of the year. In the myth of 
the Creation, as also in that of Adam and Eve, and of Cain and 
Abel, the year is divided into Winter and Summer, the latter 
being particularly described, while the former is barely referred 
to as " dreary and desolate? In the Flood legend, the year 
is divided into three seasons — winter, spring, summer. This 
division continued up to the time of the Tower of Babel, when 
it was abolished a second time. The myth of Abram begins 
with the tripartite year in order to give us the key to the story, 
after which it is dropped, Lot is brought upon the stage, and 
the bipartite year restored ; and these divisions will continue, to 
some extent, to alternate throughout the Old Testament at 
least. 

Jacob, as we have seen, married two wives, Leah and 
Rachel, and two concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah. By these he 
had eleven sons and one daughter = the twelve months of the 
year. 

In Ezekiel's time, these four wives were represented by 
images called Cherubim — " And every one of them had four 
faces ; the first face was that of a cherub, and the second face was 
the face of a man, and the third, the face of a lion, and the fourth, 
the face of an eagle." (Ezek. x, 14.) In Ezek. i, 10, we have 
the face of an ox correspondent to that of the cherub, in the 
above quotation ; hence cherub and ox are synonyms. Hence, 
again, we may infer that Ezekiel's year began when the Sun 
entered the constellation Taurus. During, and for a long 
time after the spring equinox ceased to happen in Taurus, the 
Bull was worshiped by most ancient nations. 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 105 

When Moses (Aquarius) led the children of Israel up out 
of Egypt (winter), it was found that by the precession of the 
equinoxes, the vernal equinox occurred in Aries, and not in 
Taurus ; hence, it being desirable to reform the calendar ac- 
cordingly, the people were taught to worship the Ram, or the 
priests who wore the Ram's head, to remind them of the true 
object of worship. The Philistines had a God they called 
Dagon, from dag— a fish, and on=ihe Sun=the Fish-Sun, or 
the Sun in Pisces. Dr. Inman, of Bristol, England, thinks the 
fish's head " indicates the origin of the bishop's mitre." (Anc. 
Faiths, vol. 1, p. 112). Whether his conjecture be correct or 
nut, as the spring equinox now occurs in the constellation 
Pisces, it certainly would not be out of the way for a bishop to 
surmount his head with that of a fish in order to tally with the 
superstition he is vainly endeavoring to keep alive. And this 
too, because the three persons of the divine trinity are often 
symbolized by fishes ; especially as they, or at least the second 
person thereof, converted the apostles " into fishers of men " 
(Mark i, 17), which office has ever since been regularly trans- 
mitted through the priesthood down to our present time ; for, 
most emphatically are our priests to-day "fishers of men." 
;t Now on one of the capitals of the church of St. Germain, in 
France, we see a Siren, male and bearded, holding a fish in 
his arms; and a female, beardless siren holding another fish ; 
and besides these, two other fishes united by a thread of water. 
The first group, then, ought to be regarded as the Father Al- 
mighty holding his son ; the second, the Virgin Mary (Virgo 
in opposite Pisces in the Zodiac) with the infant Christ ; 
the third, the Father and Son linked together." (Didron's 
Christ. Iconography, vol. i, p. 361.) This last group, it is 
needless to say, typifies the Sun in Pisces, and doubtless the 
symbol originated when the Sun entered Pisces precisely at 
the spring equinox, when the sacred year of the Hebrews be- 
gan ; their civil vear commencing six months later. Their 
year also began at one or the other of the solstices. These cir- 
cumstances, together with every other, even the most minute, 
must be regarded, in a true interpretation of the holy scrip- 
tures, not only of the Hebrews, but of every nation. I shall 



106 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

now proceed to discover the true nature of each of the sons of 
the great Patriarch (the Sun) here called Jacob, quoting as an 
entering wedge thereto from the blessings of the Father to 
each of his sons, in Genesis xlix, and also, when it suits my 
purpose, from that of Moses to these same sons — Deut. xxxiii. 
And first let me observe that as Jacob was the Sun, and Moses 
= Aquarius, it may be concluded that the blessing, i. e., the 
year, was made to begin at the winter solstice when the Sun 
was in Aquarius. 

1 . Reuben = Aquarius = January. 

" Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the begin- 
ning of my strength ; unstable as water, thou shalt not excel ; 
because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; thou defiledst it; 
he went up to my couch " (xlix, 3, 4). 

Reuben is, literally, Behold-a-son. A man was painted 
upon his ensign. The exclamation, " Behold a son," reminds 
us of that of Pilate when he delivered the Savior over to the 
soldiers : " Behold the man ! "=Ecce Homo (John xix. 5), i. e., 
behold the Man on Reuben's ensign or flag. The u royal 
arch " masons have Reuben upon one of their banners. (See 
Macoy's Manual, p. 168.) It would seem that Reuben, Moses, 
Pilate and Jesus were more closely related than is commonly 
supposed. Moses and Pilate were both murderers ; Reuben lay 
with one of his father's concubines, and the Savior was born of 
the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost, and yet he was the Son 
of God, i. e., of the Ram Aries. Reuben was the first born of 
Jacob (summer) by Leah (winter). He was therefore half and 
half, i. e., he was half the year above the equator, and half 
below it. His standard was fixed on the south side of the 
Hebrew camp (J^um. ii, 12). The learned Father Kircher 
thought Reuben was Aquarius. Indeed, he and others believed 
the emblems emblazoned on the standards of the twelve tribes 
were no other than pictures of the zodiacal constellations. 
Reuben, then, was simply a personification of a cluster of stars, 
into which the Sun appeared to enter about the winter solstice, 
when this fiction was fabricated. 

Reuben was the "first-born," i. e., he was the first month 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 107 

of the year ; he was " unstable as water,' 1 i. e., his place in the 
ecliptic was continually shifting by the precession of the equi- 
noxes ; " he shall not excel, 1 ' i. e., his relative position in the 
zodiac is fixed, and in liis movements, he can only keep pace 
with the other constellations ; " he went up to my couch," i. e., 
when Aquarius sets as the Sun comes to the constellation Vir- 
go, Reuben is in the very place occupied by Virgo five months 
before, and which she will again occupy seven months after. 
Both being below the equator and opposite each other, they 
"lay" together. 

As Reuben was widely known, we may conclude, what is 
certainly the case, that he had many names. He is Noah, 
Moses, Jonah, etc., of the Old Testament ; he is the Osiris and 
Tamas, of the Egyptians; the Oannes of the Berosus; the 
Chronos of the Grecians; the Neptune of the Romans; the 
Chinese Conon, who is represented as coming from the mouth 
of a whale, and the Aquarius of the zodiac : and, what is very 
curious, all these names are in some way connected with water, 
or some water vessel, from the huge ark of Noah down to the 
diminutive water-pot of Aquarius. 

A very good description of Reuben, or Moses, or Aquarius, 
is quoted from Albricus, by Bryant, in his Mythology, vol. iii, 
p. 77. Homo sedens in throno fulgenti radiis circumquaque, 
qui duas facies habebat ; quarum una ante se, altera post se 
respiciebant, Juxta ilium quoque erat templum et in manu 
ejus dextra habebat clavum qua templum ipsum aperire 
se monstrabat. In sinister vero habuit bacculum, quo saxum 
percutere, et ex illo aquam perducere videbatur; i. e., A man 
is sitting upon a glowing throne surrounded by rays; he has 
two faces, one looks backward, the other forward. Near him 
stands a temple. In his right hand he holds a key to show 
that he opens the temple (the year). In his left, he holds a 
club with which he seems to strike a rock, and thence to pro- 
cure water. 

The Janus of Paganism was the same with Reuben, as our 
month January testifies. There were two Januses — Janus 
Bifrons and Janus Quadrifrons. The first typified the begin- 
ning of the new year, and had two faces ; one, that of an old 



108 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

man looking backward on the old year just departed ; the 
other, that of a young man looking forward to the incoming 
new year. 

Janus Quadrifrons, or Janus with four faces, w T as repre- 
sented as a man having four faces instead of two, and typified 
the year. His temples were built with four equal sides, each 
with one door and three windows. The four doors denoted 
the four seasons ; the three windows in each side, the three 
months of each season ; and all together, the twelve months of 
the year. Janus Quadrifrons was Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John. 

Moses plead for Reuben : " Let Reuben live and not die " 
(Deut. xxxiii, 6). Though Reuben in occupying his father's 
couch committed a frightful crime, he was in the broad road to 
hell and the bottomless pit, and likely to get his just reward 
for it. This Moses seemed to understand, and being himself 
a criminal, he sympathized with his faithful but wicked asso- 
ciate ! 

In the second verse of this chapter Moses introduces his 
subject thus : " The Lord came from Sinai, rose up from Seir, 
and shined forth from Mount Paran." Thus is his starting 
point defined exactly : The Lord rose up from Seir=t\iQ Goat 
= Capricorn, i. e., he rose up from the winter solstice. But he 
first came down from Sinai = the moon's house = Cancer, ac- 
cording to the astrologists. Sinai is from root sin = the moon, 
among the Zabians. (See Fuerst, p. 977.) "And shined 
forth from Mount Paran = spring equinox ; its root being 
pairr =" to be green." 

2. Simeon and Le^i = Pisces = February. 

" Simeon and Levi are brethren " (Gen. xlix, 5). Kircher 
assigned Pisces to Simeon and Levi. Simeon is literally 
" heard of the Sun," and Levi, a bond. The Fishes of Febru- 
ary are united on the sphere by a bond or fillet. The Sun in 
Pisces presages the coming of spring. February means purged, 
and has reference to the spring equinox, where the Sun's decli- 
nation is nought, and the days and nights of equal length. 



JACOB AXD HIS SONS. 109 

" Simeon and Levi are brethren." One would suppose 
that the sons of the same father are all brethren. But though 
brethren to the rest of Jacob's sons in the usual sense, these 
are brethren in a special sense — they live together in the same 
house apart from the rest. Astrologically all the zodiacal 
constellations or signs are houses. Hence Christ (the Sun) is 
made to say (John xiv, 2): "In my father's house are many 
mansions," many places of abode ; the idea being that of an 
apartment with a single occupant. Hence the notion of monks 
and monasteries (from Greek mon = one, and aster = a star). 
In the original Greek, for many mansions we have monai 
pollai — many-ones. 

In the older zodiacs this constellation was represented by a 
single fish. In after times, a second, Levi, was joined by a 
band, as shown on our celestial globes, to the first. This is 
accounted for thus : Levi was disinherited of his brethren and 
made to stand before the Lord, i. e., before the beginning of 
summer, which is the Lord. " Wherefore Levi hath no part 
nor inheritance with his brethren ; the Lord is his inheritance" 
(Deut. x, 9). He was, therefore, on the same footing as Aaron 
(Xum. xviii, 20). Thus was Levi ordained a priest, i. e., one 
of the elder, or greater divisions of the year, after the order of 
Melchizedek. He was, therefore, equal with, though not the 
same as Aaron, who, as high priest, presided over the summer 
months: July, August, September, October; while Levi 
seems to have presided over the four spring months : March, 
April, May, June. 

Some of the early Christians held that Melchizedek was 
the son of God; the Jews, that he was the Messiah. Both 
were slightly mistaken. Melchizedek brought forth bread and 
wine, and, therefore, presided over both spring and summer 
(Gen. xiv, 18). 

"Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations." Ge- 
senius translates: "Weapons of violence are their swords" 
( Ilel). Lex., p. 566). Fishing nets, hooks, spears, harpoons, 
etc., are " instruments of cruelty " — of fishing. When the 
Sun appears in Pisces, all the signs that presage evil to the 
earth are above the horizon — in the upper hemisphere, the 



110 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

natural abode of the summer constellations. But this is not 
all. The setting of Pisces was but the prelude to the passage 
of the Sun into Scorpio, when the terrible reign of Typhon, 
or winter, would begin ; for we must not forget that it was 
given to the Scorpion to hurt men five months (Rev. ix, 10) — 
the first of these being October, the last, February. Nor 
should we forget that, according to Plutarch, the Egyptians 
held fish in singular dread, refusing to eat them ; and when 
they wished to express disgust, or great abhorrence, they 
painted a fish. 

" For in their anger they slew a man " (Gen. xlix, 6). This 
man was Hamor, the Ass of Cancer. They slew him because he 
had ravished and humbled their sister Dinah=Yirgo opposite 
Pisces. The manner of this slaying has before been related. 
We have a parallel to this in the story of Orion and Diana. 
The bearing of Scorpio to Pisces, being the first and the last 
of the adverse signs, and the opposites of each other, may be 
readily seen. Thus: Pisces must set before Scorpio can rise ; 
and when the latter rises, the " man," Orion, sets with Taurus, 
the place of the Moon's exaltation, and is then stung by Scorpio 
as he rises and so slain. 

" In their self-will they digged down a wall." This trans- 
lation is bad. It should be: "In their wantonness they cas- 
trated a BullP The astrologists fabled that Scorpio in rising 
devoured the testicles of Taurus. Indeed, the stars testiculi 
Tauri set precisely as Scorpio rises, and are thus devoured. 
There can be no doubt as to the meaning of the text. 

"I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." 

Although the Fishes are widely separated, i. e., scattered 
in the celestial sphere, I incline to differ from the Rev. Robert 
Taylor {Astronorrdco- Theological Lectures, p. 304), as to the 
meaning of this text. An inspection of the zodiac will show 
that Pisces comes to his zenith and divides the day-hemisphere 
in half during May, one of the four months named Jacob. 
Again, when the Sun rises between Virgo and Libra, i. e., 
midway of the four months called Israel, Pisces has set — is 
scattered, dispersed, exiled. 

To the end of this month, February, astronomers have 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. Ill 

long been in the habit of adding a day at the end of every 
fourth year, or, of commanding the Sun and Moon to stand 
still, as did Joshua, " for the space of about a whole day " 
(Josh, x, 13). 

" Our Eoman forefathers called atoning sacrifices by the 
name Februa, in allusion probably to the spring equinox, 
which happened at the end of this month (February), when 
the days and nights are of equal length, and the Sun purged 
of its sins, i. e., when the Sun's ecliptic and the equinoctial 
line meet, and so figuratively speaking are of one mind=at 
<m<Mnent=atonement." (See Ovid's Fasti, book ii.) 

Simeon had Hve sons (Gen. xlvi, 10). Let's see who they 
were: Jemuel=God's day=Snn entering Aries; Jamin^ 
Eight-hand = the East; Ohad=United=the point where win- 
ter and summer meet=spring equinox; Jachin^ Upright, 
because the day and night are of equal length ; Zohar=Eising- 
up=the beginning of summer ; and Shnal = Desire=the love 
season of spring. 

In the same manner the three sons of Levi, Gershom=oue 
expelled, Kohath= assembly, and Jf^mW=bitterness, may be 
recognized as the three ancient seasons of the year. 

3. Gad = Aries = March. 



" Gad ; a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome 
at the last " (Gen. xlix, 19). 

The rural year in the northern hemisphere, begins when 
the Sun enters the sign Aries, or Gad. In the first verse of 
Genesis, the Hebrew EloMm is not translated, but Gad, or 
God, a term of nearly the same import, is substituted in its 
place. (Types of Mankind, p. 561.) 

As Gad (Aries), by the apparent revolution of the heavens, 
descends from the upper into the lower hemisphere, the opposite 
or winter constellations overcome (come over) him. Eeturn- 
ing into the upper hemisphere, as he does the following March, 
he in turn overcomes (comes over) his enemies. The ancients, 
therefore, as he went head first, represented him as a ram 
butting with his horns. " As one of the tribes (constellations) 



112 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

east of the Jordan (Sun's race-course= ecliptic), Gad was among 
the first carried into captivity." (Smith's Old Test. Hist., 
p. 122.) That is, Gad, God, or Aries, was the first of the sum- 
mer constellations to set, or go below the equator into the 
winter hemisphere — " into captivity." 

" Gad provided the first part for himself" (Deut. xxxiii, 21). 
Gesenius would translate: " Gad chose the best part for him- 
self." (Heb. Lex., p. 951.) 

When we remember that Gad, or Aries, was called Prvn- 
ceps Zodiaci, Dux Gregis, Princeps Signorum, etc., and that 
he is the first of the summer signs, we shall be able to identify 
Gad as the God of the Bible, which I have so far repeatedly 
shown. " He chose the best part for himself," because he is 
the first of the summer constellations, and so the Creator of 
heaven (summer) and earth (the people), through the crops of 
summer. If selfish, it was in behalf of others. Gad was the 
Bereshith (the " In-the-beginning ") of the Old Testament ; 
the " En arche " of the New Testament, and the March of the 
Almanac. He was worshiped as the god of Fortune under 
the name of Baal- Gad, i. e., Lord-God, because he presided 
over the happiest and most prosperous half of the year = sum- 
mer. During his apparent circuit of the heavens, he acquired 
numerous other titles, a few only of which I will name : Baal- 
berith=Lord-of-the-covenant, or of the coming-together, as 
denoting the time when the Sun and Aries come in conjunc- 
tion ; Baal-zephon=Lord-of-the-lSrorth=the Sun in his summer 
solstice; Baal-zebub=Lord-of-fiies, because about the fall equi- 
nox the flies begin to decline; Baal-ial=Lord-of-the-opposite, 
when the Sun is at the winter solstice ; and these four Baals 
answer to the four cardinal points. Besides these, there were 
many others — Baal-peor, or Lord-of-the-opening ; Baal-perazim, 
or Lord-of-the-divisions ; Baal-shaddai, or the Lord that giveth 
suck, i. e., sustenance^ summer, etc. 

Gad was the Ares of the Greeks, and the Mars of the 
Bomans. This last gave his name to our month March. All 
were Gods of war. Mars was a terrible God ; was of huge 
size and strength, with a voice (the March winds) as loud as 
the united voices of ten thousand men. He covered seven 



.JACOB AND HIS SONS. 113 

plethra of ground, i. e., the seven summer months (Keightley's 
Myth., p. 93). 

The St. Peter (a stone, the one set up at Beth-el by Jacob) 
of the Gospels (God's spels) was March. He held the key of 
Heaven in his hands, because the year began in March. He 
was otherwise called Cephas, which also means a stone. St. 
Peter had a brother, St. Andrew, who was born in Beth-saida 
(house of the hunter), and who was crucified with his head 
downward (Aries sets head first), on a saltier, or leaping 
cross, because probably the victim kicked while upon it — a 
cross shaped like our letter X, which measured the angle made 
by the Sun in crossing the equinoctial line. " Streams of oil," 
it is said, " flowed from the tomb of this saint on the anniver- 
sary of his martyrdom." {Bees 1 Cyclo. St. Andrew.) St. Peter 
is the spring, St. Andrew the fall, equinox, hence brothers. 
The oil still flows in streams on the anniversary of this saint ! 

The ancient Egyptians symbolized this month by a man 
bearing a Ram's head and horns. Eusebius says this symbol 
marked the conjunction of the Sun and Moon in the constel- 
lation Aries. In fact the new moon nearest the spring 
equinox, whether it took place in Taurus as at first according 
to the ancient Persians, or as later in Aries, seems to have 
•denoted the new year of most of the ancients. 

This Amen, or Amnion, is no other than the Savior, Christ. 
He is variously represented according to the season of the year, 
thus : "As a little infant at the winter solstice, when the days 
are shortest ; but the length of the days increasing, he acquires 
at the vernal equinox, the vigor of a youth, and is typified 
accordingly by that emblem. Afterward we find the age of 
perfect manhood marked by a long beard, and this form relates 
to the summer solstice, at which season the Sun has acquired 
his greatest power. At length, when the days diminish, he is 
represented in a fourth form, in that of an old and decrepit 
man." (Macrobius, quoted by Prichard, Egypt. Myth., p. 106.) 

4. Ephraim = Taurus = April. 

" His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns 
nve like the horns of unicorns (straight, as we see them on the 



114 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

celestial globe). He shall push the people together to the ends 
of the earth " (Dent, xxxiii, 17). 

This was the chief of the famous Bulls of Bashan = Beth- 
shan = House-of-the-Sim = Summer. The Sun in Taurus was 
the "molten calf" of Aaron (High-Sun = Summer solstice). 
Ephraim was, therefore, inseparably connected with this Bull- 
calf. When Ephraim " committed whoredom and Israel was 
denied," then he was the " thy calf, O Samaria " (Hos. v, 3). 
Samaria signifies a watch-tower, and has reference to the winter 
solstice. Then, too, it was that Ephraim became king of 
Samaria, or the ten lost tribes. His kingdom was, doubtless, a 
very desirable kingdom ; but of this more in its proper place. 

He is the same calf to which the Amen (Aries) " who holds 
the seven stars (Pleiades in Taurus) in his right hand ; who 
walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks" (the- 
se ven summer months), addressed himself, and whose candle- 
stick he threatened to remove out of its place, " unless he will 
repent (return) and do the first works " (Rev. ii, 5). The 
reference of the Savior is to the precession of the equinoxes. 
The poor calf (Taurus), unable to obey the command at once, 
lost his place, which, after all the fuss, was no loss at all ; for 
he received just as good a place in its stead, i. e., he moved 
forward and took the place another had just vacated. 

Reader, contemplate but for a single moment that grand 
spiral revolution of the heavens, as indicated by the precession 
of the equinoxes, about a common center whose circumference 
is inconceivable, and whose speed is as inconceivable, ever 
moving on, and on, and on, thousands and tens of thousands of 
years, before it can return to the point whence it set out, to be 
swallowed up into itself, and look with contempt, if you can, 
upon that ancient symbol of eternity — a serpent biting its 
tail ! How does the idea thus unfolded compare with the 
inane twaddle of the Christian priest? 

"He shall push the people together to the ends of the 
earth." " The ends of the earth " at that time were not far 
asunder; nevertheless the people will be pushed by the work 
the season brings — the various operations of husbandry. 

Some writers, as Sir W. Drummond, seem disposed to 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 115 

assign this place to Joseph, and with some degree of plausi- 
bility. Very likely he at iirst occupied this place (the har- 
vest), but we must remember that he was sold into Egypt by 
his brethren. Here he married Asenath, daughter of Poti- 
pherah, by whom he had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. 
Ephraim succeeded to the old homestead in the following 
manner : When Jacob (the Sun), Joseph's father, was about to 
give up the ghost, i. e., was about to set below the equator in 
the west, and bury himself in that mysterious cave of Mach- 
pelah (the winter hemisphere), he (Jacob), although the elder 
(Manasseh = emptiness = winter) was placed at his right 
(imagine yourself standing in the west and facing the east;, 
and the younger (Ephraim = fruits = summer) at his left, con- 
trived, by crossing his hands (Gen. xlviii, 14) wittingly, that 
the blessing should fall upon Ephraim to the exclusion of 
Manasseh, according to the rule : " The last shall be first and 
the first last." Thus far this rule has been strictly adhered 
to. Thus : Eve — Adam ; Abel — Cain ; Isaac — Ishmael ; 
Jacob — Esau ; and now Ephraim — Manasseh. The first in 
every case, signifying whatever brings forth fruit, grows or 
causes to grow = the vivifying influence of nature. 

If we halve the^w? months of winter, we shall get two half 
months. These two halves were assigned, the one to Novem- 
ber, the other to February, under the names of half tribes of 
Manasseh, in the camp of the Hebrews, as copied from Kircher 
by Sir W. Drummond. So in like manner might two halves 
be obtained by the division of the odd month of summer. 

5. Asher = Gemini = May. 

" Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield 
royal dainties" (Gen. xlix, 20). 

Asher is the Hebrew for happiness — a happy name for 
May. Asher was to be blessed with children ; hence the text : 
" And of Asher he said, let Asher be blessed with children " 
(Dent, xxxiii, 24.) He was, therefore, symbolized by a pair of 
twins— Gemini. Hence, too, children are learned to swear — 
by Gemini, instead of by God, as being less wicked ! The 



116 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

name Gemini was given to this constellation in allusion to the 
increase at this season of the husbandman's flocks — many of 
the dams, particularly the ewes, producing twins. The rest 
of the description, though characteristic, is not equal to that of 
the " Faerie Queene : " 

" Then came faire May, the fayrest mayd on ground, 
Deckt all with dainties of her season's pryde, 
And throwing- flowers out of her lap around ; 
Upon two brethren's shoulders she did ride, — 
The twins of Leda; which on eyther side 
Supported her like to their soveraine queene : 
Lord ! how all creation laught when her they spied, 
And leapt and daunc't as they had ravisht beene! 
And Cupid selfe about her fluttered all in green." 

In all ages and among all nations there seems to have 
existed an uncontrollable desire to give vent to the joyous 
feelings so universally felt at the return of this happy season. 
Nature, long dead and cold, smiled again ! Oh, what an occa- 
sion for rejoicing ! and this rejoicing found utterance among 
the Romans in their floralia, floral games, which have thence 
been celebrated in Europe by May-poles, May-queens, etc., 
down to the days of the Puritans, when they were swept away 
by act of Parliament in 1644. It was enacted " that all and 
singular May-poles that are or may be erected, shall be taken 
down," and the gloomy desires of these fanatics were carried 
out, when necessary, by the infliction of penalties. 

Castor and Pollux, the children of Asher, are two stars of 
the first and second magnitudes in Gemini. They were the 
twins of Leda, or Night, by Zeus and Tyndareus, or light, 
i.e., they were the sons of Wight and Day. Homer sings : 

" By turns they visit the ethereal sky, 
And live alternate and alternate die. 

" Pollux, offering his alternate life, 
Could free his brother, and could daily go 
By turns aloft, by turns descend below."— Virgil. 

The fat bread, and royal dainties, were, of course, the prod- 
ucts of the month, such as milk, butter, etc. 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 117 

Castor is in extenso Ca-Astor ; Ca=the house, and As- 
ter = the Star = the Sun in Gemini. Castor is a star of the first 
magnitude. Pollux = pugilist. His Greek name, Polydeukes, 
however, means much-sweet, in allusion, probably, to this, the 
flowery season. Castor and Pollux were supposed to preside 
over judicial matters, and were sworn by, as we swear by our 
"Almighty God." Hence Cicero, in his seventh oration 
against Yerres, makes a noble appeal to their divinity in their 
images, then standing before his eyes in the Prgetorium: " Yos 
omnium rerum forensicum." But I will give it in English : 
" Ye of all forensic matters, of greatest councils, of laws and of 
judgments, the arbiters and witnesses, Ye, O Castor and Pol- 
lux, occupy the most celebrated place in the Prsetorium !" 

Do our May court sessions have anything to do with these 
Gods? 

6. Issachar = Cancer = June. 

" Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two bur- 
dens ; and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was 
quiet." (Gen. xlix, 14.) 

" Issachar," says Gesenius, " may be read, he brings re- 
ward." {Heb. Lex., p. 430.) True, since by June the harvest 
is secured. Issachar may also be read, "he kicked the Devil 
down stairs /"* Literally, however, Issachar means " he 
brings strong drink y and this reading identifies him with the 
Dionysus or Bacchus of the Greeks. Jacob, Issachar's father, 

* He who wishes to verify the latter reading, may he referred to the plate fronting 
p. 2, of Sibley's " Key to Physic and the Occult Sciences," where he will see the Old Fel- 
low kicked out of heayen, tumbling down headlong to Tartarus, or Hell, thus happily 
illustrating the sublime description of his fall by Milton — 

"Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 
Nine times the space that measures day and night 
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
Confounded, though immortal." 

Sec also Banier's Mythology, vol. i, p. 357. 



118 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

had his thigh* dislocated in a wrestling bout with Jakveh, 
while striving for the blessing — wine. Besides, the two syl- 
lables issa and nysa common to both names point to a common 
origin, " Issachar is Asaker or Zagreus (Bacchus), and the name 
is punned upon by assimilating it to the Hebrew sekari=Mre." 
{Dunlap, Spirit Hist, of Man, p. 267.) The punning was 
doubtless done by means of the Hebrew vowel-points, which 
" did not exist until near a thousand years after the Hebrew 
ceased to be spoken." 

The manner of Issachar's birth was this : " And Reuben 
went out in the days of wheat harvest (Aquarius in his zenith, 
the Sun being in Taurus), and found mandrakes (dudaim = 
love-apples) in the field, and brought them to Leah, his mother." 
(Gen. xxx, 14). Rachel coveted the love-exciting fruit, and 
in consideration of it, agreed to let Leah enjoy Jacob's com- 
pany the following night. Leah, in consequence, at the proper 
time, brought forth Iss&ch&r = I2eward= Strong-dri?ik ; for the 
Orientals manufactured from the mandrake an intoxicating 
beverage. The mandrake (Atropa mandragora) belongs to 
the nightshade family of plants ; and Reuben (Aquarius) comes 
to his diurnal meridian at the proper time — wheat-harvest — 
when the mandrake is ripe. 

" It has been absurdly pretended by some of the Pagan 
writers," says Sir "W. Drummond, " that the Jews worshiped 
Jehovah in Jerusalem under the form of an ass/' (Edip. Jud., 
p. 2). This learned writer had not yet learned that whatever 
is absurd in science, is not so in theology. Circumstances 
combine to prove that this pretension is not altogether un- 
founded, as Sir William would have us believe. 

*In the Pagan mythology, Dionysus or Bacchus was the son of Jupiter by Semele. 
The father of the Gods, at the request of Semele, having approached her with his thunder 
and lightning, set the palace on fire, when Semele perished in the flames. Being at her 
seventh month, Jupiter transferred the infant Bacchus into his thigh to be brought forth 
at the proper time. This story, which is related in almost every book on mythology, 
Thos. Francklin, D.D.. the translator of Lucian, styles a "ridiculous fable." But crack 
the nut, and the rich meat will appear. 

Jupiter is the year, being represented by the Man in the frontispiece of every almanac. 
Semele is the summer of seven months, and denoted by the Man's body. Summer ex- 
tended from the 25th of March, or Annunciation day, to the 25th of October, the last of 
the ancient summer months. Thence to the 25th of December would be two months. 
These added to the seven summer months would make nine months, the time required. 
The second birth would then take place at the winter solstice, denoted by the Man's knees, 
to which Capricorn points. ( See almanac.) 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 119 

The summer solstice then took place, when the Sun was in 
Cancer, where are the two stars called the asses. The Jews, it 
is said, pronounced the word "Jehovah," which meant the 
summer solstice, not "Jehovah," but Adoni, so as to resemble 
the braying of an ass. Formerly, too, we must remember, the 
"feast of the ass" was celebrated in commemoration of the 
"\ Flight into Egypt" which took place from the summer sol- 
stice (Egypt being winter). " The holy family " was repre- 
sented by a beautiful young girl, splendidly attired, seated upon 
an ass (they couldn't seat her "upon an ass and a colt, the foal 
of an ass." — Mat. 21, 5) and holding a young child at her 
breast. Having been led about the city in which the celebra- 
tion was held, in solemn procession, the ass with its load was 
taken into the church and placed near the high altar during 
the services, at the conclusion of which, the priest brayed three 
times, and was answered by a general he-hawing from the con- 
gregation (Apuleius* Asses). A hymn was sung by a double 
choir, the people joining in the chorus, which was as follows : 

" Now seignior ass a noble bray, 
Thy beauteous mouth at large display; 
Abundant food our hay-lofts yield, 
And oats abundant load the field. 
He-haw I He-haw! He-haw!" 

— Chambers' Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 113. 

Cicero thought it unaccountable " how one priest can 
refrain from laughter when he meets another " {Nature of the 
Gods, p. 25). 

The two burdens were the two labors incident to the two 
halves of the summer season, here divided by the summer sol- 
stice, the point opposite the winter solstice. The first marks 
the longest, the last the shortest, day in the year. The circle 
which cuts these points is called the solstitial colnre, the last 
word meaning dock-tailed, because the southern ends of the 
hour circles, in our hemisphere, are never seen above the 
horizon. 

" And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was 
pleasant." 

Never does the land appear more pleasant than in the 
month of June, when the Sun comes to his highest point in 



120 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the heavens, where he must stop in his course and seem to 
rest; and this rest was not only of the Sun, but of all nature : 

" It seemed as if life's brilliant sun 
Had stopped in full career, 
To make this hour its brightest one, 
And rest in radiance here." 

Issachar, we must conclude then, is truly referable to Cancer, 
the Crab of June ; and, as he is the same with Bacchus, so was 
he the Phoenician Adonis, or the Hebrew Tammuz, i. e. T 
Thomas, the very name of the crabbed apostle of the Gospels. 
The name Thomas signifies a twin, and well applies to the two 
solstices, which have been appropriately styled twins. Luther 
regarded Tammuz as Bacchus. Calvin thought him to be 
Osiris. In Ezekiel's time the women bewailed the fate of 
Tammuz, who they supposed had been slain by a boar (symbol 
of winter). " Then he (the Lord God) brought me to the 
door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward (oppo- 
site) the north (summer solstice) ; and behold, there sat women 
weeping for Tammuz " (Ezek. viii, 14). Poor Tammuz (sum_ 
mer Sun) was dead, slain by the boar (winter) and gone to Hell 
= south hemisphere. The women, however, had a search for him, 
or rather for the wooden image of him ; this found, they washed 
it (rainy season) and anointed it, and placed it in a coffin, as 
the Egyptians did Osiris ; at the same time showing the wound 
made by the boar (winter). The people sat around the bier on 
the ground with their clothes rent, while the women howled 
and cried aloud. The whole scene, I dare say, resembled the 
hunt of the freemasons after their grand master, Hiram Abiff 
(the Sun in winter), who had been slain by the three ruffians, 
Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum, or the three seasons of the 
ancient year. 

The suffering and death of our Savior (the Sun) upon the 
cross (the autumnal equinox) is but a repetition of the same 
old story in different language. He, too, descended after his 
crucifixion into the lower regions — into Hell, or winter; but 
revived in due time, and rode into the Holy City — Jerusalem 
(summer solstice), upon " an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass," 
astride the two, of course, working the most astounding mir- 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 121 

acles as he went ; the boys and girls following after and crying 
out — Hosanna ! while Bacchus, tickled by the drollery of his 
situation, and maybe a little fuddled with wine, for it is said 
that " wine cheereth the heart of both God and man,'' joyfully 
shouted : " Yerily, if these should hold their peace I tell you 
the very stones would cry out." 

7. Judah = Leo = July. 

" Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise " (Gen. 
xlix, 8). 

Judah in English is praise. We have already seen, as we 
shall see hereafter, that the four previous months are collectively 
called Judah ; and this because they are the months in which 
the cereals are grown and gathered. These four spring months 
ending as they did at the summer solstice and the products 
thereof garnered, it was but natural that the following month 
should take the individual name of Judah —i^raise. 

Many centuries ago the summer solstice was in the con- 
stellation Leo = the Lion. ' Judah, or Leo, being thus the 
most northerly constellation, and also the Most High, and 
so presiding over the year, would secure the praise of his 
brethren. Leo, too, be it ever remembered, was, with the 
astrologers, the house, or dwelling place of the Sun, i. e., it 
was the place of the summer solstice. Accordingly we find 
that at this season the Egyptians had the Sun in the highest 
honor; and held a grand festival on the occasion, as also did 
the Hebrews and most other nations. In Leo the Sun was 
adored by the Egyptians as Osiris; by the Syrians as Adonis; 
by the Jews as Tammuz; by the Tyrians as Melech-arets, or 
King-of-the-earth; and by the Greeks as Hercules, Dionysus 
or Bacchus. 

'* Thy hand shall be in the neck of all thy enemies." When 
Taurus was the first of the summer constellations, Judah, Leo 
or the summer solstice, stood for the upper hemisphere against 
its opposite or the winter hemisphere, whose constellations 
were regarded as the enemies of those of summer — winter is 
the enemy of summer. At midsummer, then, Judah's hand is 
upon the neck of his enemies. 



122 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" Judah is a Lion's whelp." — Judah embraced Leo minor, 
which is represented couchant, as well as Leo major — the 
smaller as well as the greater lion. These are the lions which 
dwell in Beth-labaoth, or the Lion's den ; and this Leo ?nino? t 
is the lion the youngster David went out after and slew — the 
same that is annually slain. He is the young lion that " roared " 
against Samson, or the Sun, and which he rent as he would 
rend a kid = the Goat of December. He is the Lion that did 
not eat up Daniel, or Aries, when he passed through his den. 
He is the Nemean Lion, or Lion of the grove, i. e., of the 
zodiacal constellations; the very same that Hercules, or the 
Sun, slew. He is the same Lion also of the Apocalypse that 
did not open the " Book " sealed with seven seals (the seven 
summer months), but prevailed to open it, i. e., when Leo 
comes to his meridian near the spring equinox, he prevails 
with the Lamb (Aries), which then rises with the Sun, to open 
the Book = summer, or the year. 

" Thy father's children shall bow down before thee." The 
Sun being in Leo at the summer solstice, Judah's brothers, the 
constellations corresponding to the four preceding months, are 
said to bow doion before him, i. e., set before him. 

" The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver, 
from between his feet, until Shiloh come." 

Here the translator is at fault. " Come " should be " go" 
and then we can attach some sense to this otherwise obscure 
passage. The Hebrew is jabo, the future of bo. The very 
first definition of this word by Gesenius is 'Ho go." The He- 
brew bo. this author tells us, corresponds to the Sanscrit va, to 
go ; to the Greek bao, to go, whence the Latin vado, to go, and 
this definition, he thinks, is " the primary one" (Ileb. Lex., 
p. 116.) In Gen. xxxvii, 30, it is translated "go" as "whither 
shall I go" In Jonah, i, 3, it is "go" as "he found a ship 
going to Tarshish." In Num. xxxii, 6; Job, ii, 11; Isa. vii, 
24; xxii, 15, and many other places, it is rendered "go." I 
shall, therefore, substitute " go " for "come," and proceed at 
once to the evident meaning of the text. Reference is had in 
my view to the precession of the equinoxes, by which, after 
2160 years, Shiloh, or the summer solstice, having entered the 



JACOB AXD HIS SONS. 133 

first degree of Leo, would be removed therefrom into the 
adjoining constellation — from between Jndah's feet, or the 
east and west boundaries of the constellation Leo, and with it 
(the summer solstice), of course, the scepter and Lawgiver. 
The summer solstice now occurs in Gemini, the winter solstice 
being in Sagittarius. 

" Shiloh " Gesenius regards as derived from shalem—peace- 
— rest. To this I agree in part, and suggest that the h, suffixed 
to Shilo, is an abbreviation of Jahveh, of which we have many 
examples in the Bible. Shiloh would thus mean Lord's rest— 
the summer solstice. 

The Shiloh or Shilon (for both mean the same thing, 
peace = summer solstice) is the Ele-on, or High-Sun, of the 
Egyptians, whence the Greeks derived their Helios, the Sun, 
and the English their Lion. At this season (mid-summer) the 
heat became vehement, and because the lion was the emblem 
of strength and violence, the name was transferred to him. 
Other reasons may have had their influence ; as, at this season, 
the people were much annoyed by these animals, which then 
left the desert because of the scarcity of water. It was but 
natural, therefore, that this asterism should be assigned to the 
lion. 

8 . 1ST apht ali — Virgo = August. 

" Naphtali is a hind let loose ; he giveth goodly words. ? ' 
(Gen. xlix, 21.) 

Xaphtali is literally " my wrestling" Coming from a 
root which signifies in its active sense, u to twist, to twine" 
it may mean, in its passive sense in which form the name is 
found, " to he crooked, crafty, deceitful " like Jacob, and 
therefore if not the same, Naphtali is closely related to his 
wrestling father — "a chip of the old block." It was about 
this time, let us remember, that Jacob, having dislocated his 
thigh in wrestling for the blessing, ceased to contend with the 
Gods {ram-suns of summer). It may be further noted that 
Rachel took " her wrestlings of God " to wrestle with her 
sister, and, so prevailing, obtained a son. Having got this 



124 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

son in the manner related, through her handmaid Bilhah, 
Rachel called his name Naphtali "my wrestler." (Gen. 
xxx, 8.) 

Again : " Naphtali is a hind let loose." A " hind " is a 
female deer, and also a name for a servant or slave. By 
an easy transition, it may come to signify a woman-slave. 
The harvest having been brought to a close, it was fitly said 
" Naphtali (the slave-woman) is a hind let loose," her liberty 
and her rejoicings being compared to the gambols 'of that 
beautiful animal.* None but they who have witnessed a 
group of slaves enjoying their holiday, can conceive of the 
scene these poor slave-women, thus liberated for a little season,, 
would exhibit after their long period of most exacting toil. 

" He giveth goodly words." That is, the garner well filled, 
he speaks right home to every individual ; for what can dis- 
course more eloquently to an empty stomach than a well pre- 
pared meal? To this species of eloquence priests have ever 
been keenly alive. The hint given in the above text, however r 
leads us to suspect the identity of our zodiacal Virgin with 
Minerva, the Roman goddess of eloquence. Indeed a critical 
comparison of their respective attributes will not fail to iden- 
tify them. They will be found to be absolutely the same r 
even to the very name — in Greek Parthenos. The cerulean, 
or blue-eyed Athena of the Greeks is only another name for 
this goddess. Athena is compounded of Aith-ain=Yonsr 
ignis=fire-fountain=the Sun. She was the daughter of Ju- 
piter = the sky. She sprang forth from his cleft-head, i. e. r 
from "the fore-head of the sky " {Cox's Myth. vol. i, p. 440.) 
Thus Naphtali was born of Klhah==$e Dawn ; and this same 
myth runs through the Indian, Scandinavian, Grecian, Roman, 
and, I may venture to say, all the written mythologies of the 
world. 

Moreover, a careful examination and comparison of the 
attributes of the various females of the Bible will suffice to 

* The Iphigenia of the Greeks, the daughter of Agamemnon, was the Virgo of the 
Zodiac; as was also the Jephthigenia of the Bible. We are told that as the former was 
about to be sacrificed, a hind was substituted in her place. St. Augustine says that 
" since that virgin was afterward found alive, it is easy to see that a hmd had been slyly 
substituted for her." (City of God, vol. ii, p. 238. > 



JACOB AXD HIS SONS. 125 

satisfy the unprejudiced and intelligent reader that they are 
all mere personifications, and for the most part, if not wholly, 
identical with the zodiacal Virgin. Thus: Sarah, Rebekah, 
Rachel, wives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; Miriam, sister of 
Moses and Aaron ; Zipporah, Moses' wife, also Lot's wife, 
Iscah ; Ruth, Esther, Bath-sheba, etc., to whom we may add 
Jezebel, Ahab's wife, also Jael, Heber's wife, who nailed Sisera 
to the earth with a tent-pin. 

We may note in addition that she is the JVeith, or the As- 
Neith of the Egyptians, who had a great shrine at Sais, which 
bore the world-renowned inscription : " I am all that was, and 
is, and is to be ; no mortal has lifted up my veil,* and the fruit 
I bore is the sun." That is, as the great bright star Spica 
Virginis rises above the eastern horizon at midnight, on the 
night of the 25th of December, it is said the Sun is born, and 
begins at once his north declination, as our new year begins. f 

" O Xaphtali, satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing 
of the Lord, possess thou the West and the South " (Deut. 
xxxiii, 23). 

That is, full of the fruits of the earth, which are ingathered 
at this season (August), Naphtali (Sun in Virgo) " possess thou 
the West and the South," i. e., being in the east with the Sun 
at the end of summer and above the equinoctial line, pass 
thence to the west below the equinoctial line, where she is 
found when the Sun enters Aries. The reader will observe 
that this address of Moses can have no possible reference to 
the geographical position of the little plot of territory assigned 
to Naphtali in our map of Palestine. For the West and the 
South, i. e., the south-west, is put down to Simeon, while the 
portion of J^aphtali is exactly opposite in the north and about 
the same distance from the sea-coast. The allusion, therefore, 
must be as above stated. Virgo is directed to retire from the 
north-east, where she is found at the end of summer, into the 
south-west, where she is found every spring as the Sun enters 
Aries. 



* In a translation of Plutarch's /«* and Osiris by William Baxter in 1694, 1 find "petty- 
coat " instead of " veU." 

+ See Bun^en's Egypt, vol. i, p. 899. 



126 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



9. Benjamin = Libra = September. 

"Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall 
devour the prey, and at night divide the spoil." (Gen. xlix, 
27.) 

This translation I conceive to be faulty. The word rendered 
" wolf," meaning tawny in the original, was given to the wolf 
because of the color. It undoubtedly had reference to the 
reddish-yellow tinge which the leaves assumed at the begin- 
ning of winter. Being used in the original as an adjective, it, 
of course, is descriptive of Benjamin, the impersonation of 
winter. A better translation is this : " The tawny Benjamin 
shall gather; during the morning he shall accumulate, and at 
night appropriate his store." 

The language is allegorical. Morning refers to the pro- 
ductive portion of the year, during which man procures his 
present sustenance, gathers in in autumn (the Sun being in 
Libra), and lays by something for winter use. Night is win- 
ter — the dread reign of Typhon, or the North — during which 
the reserved supplies must be consumed. Typhon is literally 
•Sun's hill = the summer solstice. Upon this hill or altar is the 
the Sun yearly sacrificed for the salvation of mankind — for the 
summer crops. That is, the Sun leaving his northern solstice 
gradually declines to the south as far as the Tropic of Capri- 
corn. During his absence, human sacrifices are made in his 
stead, i. e., the people of the northern hemisphere suffer 
because of the evils incident to winter, or the " Wolf." 

Benjamin means " son-of-the-right-hand" i. e., he is the 
West. Now facing the north with extended hands, as all our 
geographies direct, the right hand will point to the east, the 
left hand to the west. Thus Benjamin being the son of the 
east, must represent the west. Libra, then, is his home or 
place in the Zodiac, and not Gemini, as Sir W. Drummond 
supposed. (Edip. Juda., p. 30.) 

He is the next constellation following Yirgo in the Zodiac. 
The Wolf appears a little farther on and foreshadows the hun- 
gry (the wolf was ever the symbol of hunger) and desolate 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 127 

character of winter. Benjamin's mother, as her soul waw 
departing (the Sun was leaving Yirgo to enter Libra), called his 
name Benoni (son of my sorrow), because, as she (summer) 
died, Benoni (winter) was born. But his lather, Jacob, glad, 
perhaps, to be rid of the old lady, immediately changed his 
son's name to Benjamin, or the fortunate, in allusion, proba- 
bly to the bountiful crops, then ingathered. Philo Judreus 
says "Benjamin is an emblem of young and old time." 
(Bohns Philo, vol. ii, p. 351.) He is correct, as the Jewish 
civil year both began and ended at the fall equinox. 

"And of Benjamin he said : The beloved of the Lord shall 
dwell in safety by him ; the Lord shall cover him all the day 
long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders." (Deut. 
xxxiii, 12.) 

Now all this is very odd. But is it literally true? Did the 
Lord, or will he at any time, vacate heaven, and come down to 
earth to "cover" a man "all the day long," and sit between 
his shoulders nobody knows how long ? As it stands, the lan- 
guage is but the wild ravings of the maniac. But figura- 
tively, can there be any sense worked out of it? I think so, 
and go at once to extract it. The Lord is the summer solstice, 
or the Sun in his zenith, and presides over the summer months. 
Benjamin, the last of these months, is September. Lie is 
represented by a pair of scales, because, when the Sun reaches 
Libra, the days and nights are of equal length. " The beloved 
of the Lord " is the summer crops, because produced by him, 
and by this time is secured, i. e., "dwells in safety by him" 
(Benjamin). 

" The Lord shall cover him all the day long." How cover 
him? With his hand, as he covered Moses (Ex. xxxiii, 22), 
and afterward take it aw r ay that Benjamin might see his " back 
parts," or did he sprawl himself out like a great bloated toad 
over him? In its common acceptation the language is non- 
sense. To the initiated, however, it is significant and beau- 
tiful. Thus : 

When the Sun (Lord) comes to the equinox in autumn, he 
covers Benjamin, or the equator, " all the day long," i. e., he 
rises in the east, passes over the middle of the earth and sets in 



128 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the west. In the meanwhile he dwells between his shoulders, 
i. e., between the two horizons — the east and the west. 



10. Dan = Scorpio— October. 

" Dan shall be a serpent by the way : an adder in the path 
that biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider shall fall backward " 
(Gen. xlix, 17). 

We have already seen that Scorpio in connection with 
Taurus, the opposite constellation, has afforded us the material, 
i. e., the ideas out of which to picture Satan, or the Devil, or 
the Adversary, who, though if prepared for, is not so much 
to be dreaded as is usually represented by our free-spoken 
but venal clergy. Says an old poet : 

'" I'll tell you what now of the Devil: 
He's no such horrid creature; cloven-footed, 
Black, saucer-eyed, his nostrils breathing fire, 
As these lying Christians make him." 

— Brand's Pop. Antiq., vol. ii, p. 518. 

Dan is literally judge ; hence in the verse preceding the 
one above quoted, it is said : " Dan as one of the tribes of 
Israel, shall judge his people." The word translated people 
means kindred. The tribes of Israel are Leo, Virgo, Libra 
and Scorpio, the last being Dan. Followed in his rising by 
the four winter constellations, he judges them — his kindred 
— but not his own people=the summer constellations. The 
language now is not of things of heaven (summer), but of 
Hell, or that portion of the celestial sphere below the equator, 
wherein the Sun appears during the winter months. The 
name of Dan's house in Hebrew is Beth-akrabbim, which is, 
being translated, House-of-the-horse-heel-biter. Dan is the 
Scorpion of October. In the next house, or constellation, we 
find the "horse and his rider ^ — Phil-hippos, Philip, or 
Horse-lover, who will, when the Scorpion bites his heels, i. e., 
when the Sun passes from Scorpio into Sagittarius, fall over 
backward, but not off his horse. Sagittarius, in setting, goes 
down tail first, thus tumbling over backward. 

But here we are (ugh ! how it makes one shudder) on the 
brink of Hell, where (ugh !) : 



JACOB AZSD HIS SONS. 129 

" Lo! the fell monster with deadly sting, 
Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls, 
And firm embattled spears, and with his filth 
Taints all the world. ' ' — Inferno, canto xvii. 

But, honest reader, be not frightened, as, properly equipped, 
you will be conducted through these infernal regions as safely 
as were Yirgil and Dante. Though you may have frequent 
reason to shudder (ugh !) as you tread the dubious way, at 
sight of the iiend of evil, who — 

' ' In the void 
Glancing, his tail upturned its venomous fork 
With sting like Scorpion's armed." 1 — Ibid. 

Trust in me, and I promise you, unforeseen accidents excepted, 
a " safe conduct " through these 



''Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
And rest can never dwell.' 1 



And though 
and though 



" Long is the way 
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light; " 



" Grim horrors round our mansion reign, 
Yet spring will come and Nature smile again.'' 

Seated upon the same Geryon (Sun in Scorpio), or Oaken 
Ades (Dog or Priest of Hell = the triple-headed Cerberus, 
see Bryanfs Myth., vol. ii, p. 119), which bore Yirgil and 
Dante, and the whole human race, let us issue the same order: 

"Geryon! now move thee; be thy wheeling gyres 
Of ample circuit, easy of descent." 

And he shall bear us through the infernal regions, over the 
hated Styx (r'iver-of-dread = winter solstice), and thence on and 
unto and over the placid Lethe, or river of forge tfulness, the 
Ararat of Noah, and the equinox of March, into Paradise 
(corrupted from Para-Diis= among the Gods), or the summer 
months. 

Geryon was the son of Echidna, who w r as a beautiful 
woman above, but a horrid serpent below, i. e., Echidna was 
9 



130 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the Sun's ecliptic — the summer half being symbolized by a 
woman ; the winter half by a serpent. Geryon, it seems, was 
the annual Sun, being triple-headed* in allusion to the three 
seasons of the ancient year. 

They, who have read the Divine Comedy of Dante, know 
that it has three parts — Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, in 
allusion to the triple division of the year above named. In 
fact, in all, or nearly all, the great epic poems, we are first 
introduced into Hell, and afterward into the other divisions of 
the year. Protestants discard Purgatory, and substitute there- 
for Repentance. In this they gain nothing, for Purgatory and 
Repentance substantially mean the same thing. With the 
Jews, Sheol answered to the Christian Hell ; Kephaim, to Pur- 
gatory or Repentance, and Shamaim, to Paradise or Heaven. 

Sheol usually translated Hell or its equivalent in the Bible 
is the "under world or subterranean cave" (Ges. Ileb. Lex., p. 
1022). Sheol, then, is the earth in winter, when the Sun 
appears among the southern constellations. This is the true 
meaning of Sheol, which corresponds to the Hades of the 
Greeks. " Hades is an intermediate state between death and 
resurrection " = between death and life; it is the earth's sleep. 
(See Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. Hell). Sheol includes Limbo, 
or the border of Hell farthest from the state of bliss = sum- 
mer, where all of earth who have reaped the fruits 

" Of painful superstition and blind zeal; 
Naught seeking but the praise of men, here find 
Fit retribution, empty as their deeds." 

The Sun having crossed the equinoctial line, or path of 
righteousness, on his southern tour, errs or sins from day to 
day, i. e., he gets farther and farther from the line of rectitude, 
and thus forcibly reminds us that continual sinning will lead 
to certain destruction, unless a stop be put to it, and forthwith 
a return to the law of God be inaugurated. This happens at 
the winter solstice, at Christmas, when Christ — the Sun — is 
born again, and proves true that saying of his — "except a 
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," — the 
following summer. 



JACOB AXD HIS SONS. 131 

But let us haste, lest if we die here, our doom will be fixed 
in Hell sure ; just as sure as, should we be fortunate enough to 
mount Jacob's ladder (the Zodiac), with Jesus or the Sun, and 
ride with him astride the two asses (two stars in Cancer) into 
the holy city Jerusalem (mid-summer), which is above, and die 
there, our fate will be fixed in highest heaven. But whether 
in hell or heaven will make no difference, for " all go unto one 
place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again ? ' (Eccl. iii, 
20). 

From the winter solstice, or lowest pit of hell, we enter 
Purgatory, and thenceforth, at every step of our journey, our 
Savior, G-eryon, or Jesus, or the Sun, purges both himself and 
us of his and our sins until at length we reach the vernal equi- 
nox, or path of righteousness. 

The Eagle, a constellation which rises about the same time 
with Scorpio, was, for mystical reasons say, the astrologers, 
adopted on the standard of Dan instead of Scorpio, which was 
the accursed sign, and held to be a symbol of bad omen, i. e., 
it was the harbinger of winter. 

The four royal titles — Reuben, Ephraim, Jndah, and Dan, 
are the genii of the four seasons, or quarters of the year ; and 
their symbols — the Man of Reuben, the Bull of Ephraim, the 
Lion of Judah, and the Eagle of Dan, are precisely the same 
as at this day accompany the four Evangelists, or Good Angels, 
in all the paintings and representations of them in all the 
Christian and Pagan cathedrals in the world. They may be 
seen thus painted in Trinity Church in the city of JSTew York, 
each with his inseparable companion, or emblem. They are 
even so represented on the title page of the authorized version 
of King James I, in the primary edition of 1611 — the Man 
with Luke, the Bull with Matthew, the Lion with Mark, and 
the Eagle with John. Thus, we have three sets of symbols 
expressive of the four quarters of the year — Reuben, Ephraim, 
Judah, and Dan, of the Old Covenant; Luke, Matthew, Mark, 
and John, of the Xew Covenant, and Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, 
and Scorpio (Eagle) of the Astrologists, or of the Almanac; all 
which unite in symbolizing the year, or, in gospel phrase, " in 
preaching the acceptable year of the Lord." 



132 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

It will not be improper to state that these four emblems — 
the Bull, the Man, the Lion, and the Eagle, are still borne 
upon the Masonic insignia. 

11. • Joseph = Sagittarius = November. 

"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a 
well. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him 
and hated him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms 
of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty 
God of Jacob" (Gen. xlix, 22-24)/ 

The sense of the original scarcely appears in the above 
translation. The following is a more literal and better trans- 
lation : 

" Joseph is the son of a fruit-tree — the son of the fruit-tree 
by the well. His chiefs (the summer months) have provoked 
him, and the lightnings (not archers) have grieved, or shot at 
him ; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands 
(bow and arrow) were made strong by the hands of the mighty 
of Jacob ;" i. e., by the four spring months over which Jacob 
presided. The word for " God " does not occur in the original, 
nor is it even hinted at. 

In ancient times the months were designated as trees, each 
bearing its appropriate fruit. Joseph w T as the son (fruit) of the 
tree (month) by the well (winter). This is the month Novem- 
ber. The word Joseph signifies addition ; or Joseph is some- 
thing to which something is added. But Joseph's "branches 
run over the wall," i. e., over the previous eight months, during 
which the crops were grown, gathered, put in market by No- 
vember, and afterward sold to the Midianites or middle-men. 

The narrative of Joseph's life has been distinguished as 
" the most charming in all history " (Smith's Old Test. Hist., 
p. 106). 

Although a divine, and as such, an infallible being, Joseph's 
good name, having been tampered with by mortals, had, as 
might have been foreseen, suffered somewhat ; and, as we shall 
see, even in his own age, smacked of human folly and want of 
foresight. I do not by any means wish to favor the idea that 



JACOB AKD HIS SONS. 133 

Joseph was fallible, for that would be wrong ; but that his 
character as handed down to us seems to partake less of the 
divine than of the human, solely through human agency. As 
to his infallibility, "let every man be fully persuaded in his 
own mind " (Rom. xiv, 15). However, whether of high or low 
degree, he rode in Pharaoh '* second chariot (Gen. xli, 43), and 
November is the second of the Jive winter months. 

" Now Israel (the sun after the summer solstice), loved Jos- 
eph (the crops as ingathered in November), more than all his 
children (the four months of summer), because he was the child 
of his old age (the close of summer), and he made him a coat 
of many colors " (the leaves and fruits of autumn) Gen. xxxvii, 
3. Therefore his brethren hated him. Besides Joseph dreamed 
two dreams ;. in the first he was binding sheaves in the tield 
with his brethren, " when, lo, his sheaf stood upright, while 
his brothers' sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance 
to his sheaf.' 1 In the second the sun, moon and stars, (zodi- 
acal constellations), make obeisance to him (the twelfth) Gen. 
xxxvii, 9. Both were to the same import, viz., that all must 
subsist upon the stores laid by for winter. " And his brethren 
(the eleven zodiacal constellations, exclusive of Sagittarius) 
envied him, but his father observed the saying" (Gen. xxxvii, 
11). After this Joseph's father sent him out of the vale of 
Hebron (autumn, when grain was sowed), to Shechem (Taurus 
of spring, when the grain ripens), to look after his brethren. 
On his way the poor boy got lost (the grain was not up yet), 
but a certain man (Aquarius) found him, (i. e., the grain began 
to grow) and sent him on his way to Dothan (the latter rain of 
spring, when wheat harvest is approaching). At Dothan Jos- 
eph found his brethren, who were looking for him. Afar off 
they espied him, when they said to one another: "Behold 
this dreamer cometh," and, conspiring together, took him (the 
gathered crop) and threw him into a pit (granary).' Scarcely 
had they done this when some Midianites (men of strife) mer- 
chantmen, coming along, they drew him up out of the pit 
(such are used to-day in that country for granaries) and sold 
him to the Ishmaelites (the people in winter). To exculpate 
themselves, they having dipped it in the blood of a kid (the 



134 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

goat of December) slain for that purpose, exhibited poor Jos- 
eph's bloody coat to their father ; i. e. they showed the reddish 
hue of the frost-killed vegetation. The Ishmaelites, themselves 
Egyptians, took Joseph (the grain) down into Egypt (winter), 
where they sold him to Pharaoh (winter sun), king of Egypt. 
Here, the Lord being with him, Joseph prospered exceedingly, 
and, being withal extremely beautiful, he drew upon him the 
lustful eyes of his mistress, who boldly accosted him, saying, 
" lie with me." But Joseph's virtue, like Abimelech's, was not 
to be overcome. The woman, however, persevered, and seizing 
his garment, again importuned him, saying, " lie with me." 
This time Joseph fled, leaving his garment in her hands. 
Here the Sun being in Yirgo, the earth (Joseph) was on 
the opposite side, over against Yirgo. Passing into the 
winter hemisphere, the earth or Joseph leaves its green cloak 
in the hands of Yirgo, Potiphar's wife. It has often been 
said : 

' ' Hell has no fury like a woman scorned . ' ' 

Hence, Mrs. Potiphar, appearances being in her favor, accused 
Joseph before her husband. Joseph, of course, was condemned 
and sent to prison — " in Potiphar's own house " (Smith's Old 
Test. Hist., p. 109), which looks rather ominous, since Potiphar 
dying soon after, Joseph took this same woman to wife (Gould's 
Leg. of Pat. and Proph., p. 237), and soon learned of a truth 
that " her house is the way to Hell, going down into the 
chambers of death (winter). For she hath cast down many 
wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her" 
(Prov. vii, 26, 27). 

Here, in prison, " in Potiphar's own house," the Lord (Sun) 
being still with him, Joseph contrived to make himself useful. 
Having correctly interpreted the dreams of the chief butler 
and the chief baker (summer and winter), who, like Castor 
and Pollux alternately live and die, he was, at length, brought 
to the favorable notice of Pharaoh, who had just dreamed two 
remarkable dreams. Having interpreted them satisfactorily, 
he was set to work at once to prepare for the coming famine 
he had predicted. During the seven plenteous years (the 



.JACOB AXD HIS SONS. 135 

seven summer months) he stored up the corn in the land to 
sell out at extortionate prices daring the seven years of famine 
(five winter months and March and April) to the poor starving 
farmers. This was found a profitable speculation, for he not 
only got his own money back, but with it all the farmers' 
property — their lands, their cattle and themselves also, for he 
made them renters to Pharaoh — summer provides for winter 
(Gen. xlvii, 23). 

Joseph was no respecter of persons ; he sold to all' alike, 
provided, of course, the pay was forthcoming ; dealing harshly 
with his own kin, who were obliged, as he had forewarned 
them, to come doivn to him or starve. Thus were his dreams 
fulfilled — the Sun (his father) and the moon (his mother) and 
the eleven stars (his brethren) being brought to make their 
obeisance to him. 

All having been thus satisfactorily performed, Pharaoh 
called Joseph Zaphnath Paaneah, i. e., Salvator mundi, or 
Savior of the world, and gave him to wife Asenath, daughter 
(wife) of Potipherah, priest of On (Sun). This Asenath was 
the As-neith of the Egyptians, the Grecian Athene, the Roman 
Minerva, the Yirgo of the Zodiac, and the Virgin Mary of the 
God's-spell, or Gospel. She was always a mother though ever 
a Virgin. She was the Bath-sheba, wife of Uriah, the present 
Joseph, whom David afterward slew that he might enjoy the 
beautiful wife. 

Joseph, at his first interview with his brethren in Egypt, 
" took Simeon and bound him before their eyes" (Gen. xliv, 
24). Astrologically, Simeon (Pisces) is in dexter quartile 
aspect with Joseph (Sagittarius). This was unlucky for poor 
Simeon. But by the old Egyptian division of the year, Joseph 
was the first and Simeon the last of the winter months ; thus 
Simeon was doubly bound to Joseph. Joseph next demanded 
that they should bring him Benjamin (Libra), who fortunately 
is in sinister sextUe aspect with Joseph (Sagittarius), on their 
next visit. To this their poor old father strongly objected, as 
it was a long way poor Benjamin would have to travel ; but 
being persuaded by Reuben and Judah (Aquarius and Leo = 
the two solstices) that they would certainly see the lad home 



136 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

in safety, the old man gave way. True to their promise, these 
faithful sons returned Benjamin to his father (the Sun in 
Libra), notwithstanding all the difficulties thrown in their way 
by their arrogant brother. 

Having delayed, fretted and puzzled his poor brethren by 
placing the money he had taken for their food in their sacks 
(adding to Benjamin's his silver cup = the cornucopia, or horn 
of plenty,' for this was the month of the ingathering), and 
sending them on their journey ; then bringing them back, 
accusing them of theft, etc., Joseph got up a splendid dinner 
(we should rather say stopper, for the word translated noon 
means two-lights = our twilight = evening), and after much fuss 
and dilly-dally, at length discovered himself to his brethren, 
saying: "I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into 
Egypt ; " he didn't, nor could he, simply say, " I am Joseph 
your brother." No ! the accusation — " whom ye sold into 
Eg} r pt" — must come out, and properly enough, too, from our 
point of view. How many farmers are there in Illinois and 
the Northwest who, at the approach of winter, sell all they 
have down into Egypt (destruction), and, being afterward 
obliged to repurchase what they had sold, at treble rates of the 
Josephs always ready to profit by their advantage, listen in 
sorrow to this same accusation — " I am Joseph whom, ye sold 
into Egypt?" However, we are told that the scene of this 
disclosure was indescribably affecting, for Joseph wept ! Yes ! 
" Joseph wept aloud." In the original : " he gave forth his 
voice in weeping." The rainy season had then just begun. 

During all this fuss-making, Joseph did not dream that his 
poor old father was at home starving. Not he ; this was of no 
consequence. He was in authority, and he must show it. 
While poor, he was humble. But this was only his human 
nature — his weak side. However, after a little, his brethren 
were fitted out with wagons, provisions, money, and everything 
necessary, with instructions to bring all down into Egypt 
(winter). 

Jacob didn't like the idea of removing down into Egypt, a 
bit, but God (El) reassured him, saying: "Fear not to go 
down into Egypt ; for I am the God {El) of the Gods (Elohi) 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. lo7 

of thy father 1 ' (Gen. xlvi, 3);* "I will go down with thee 
into Egypt, and I will surely bring thee up again " (v. 4). 
The reader will remark here that God (Aries) and Jacob (the 
Sun) go down into Egypt (winter) every fall, and come up 
together again by spring. " So Jacob (the Sun) rose up from 
Beer-sheba (the end of summer) ; and the sons of Israel (Leo, 
Virgo, Libra and Scorpio) carried Jacob, their father, and their 
little ones, and their wives, in the wagons (winter months) 
which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their 
cattle and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of 
Canaan (the month represented by Scorpio), and came into 
Egypt (winter) ; Jacob (the Sun) and all his seed (the earth) 
with him : his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters 
and his sons' daughters, -and all his seed brought he with him 
into Egypt " (Gen. xlvi, 5-7). 

Joseph had daughters ; how many, the text does not tell 
us ; but Philip, who is this same Joseph, of whom something 
here, though in digression, may not be out of place, u had four 
daughters which did prophecy " (Acts xxi, 9), i.e., marched 
upon the v:all—\\\G zodiac, and thus foretold coming events. 
These " four daughters " were likely the four seasons of the 
}^ear. Two of them persevered in their virginity — Autumn 
and Winter. 

Philip means horse-lover. He is made up of man and horse, 
wmich explains the waggish, conceit found in Psalm cxlvii, 10 : 
,; He (the Lord) delighteth not in the strength of the horse ; he 
taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man ;" a comical but in- 
structive scrap of revelation. By it we learn the important 
truth that the Lord (Sun in Sagittarius) is a composite of man 
and horse — a man having not a man's, but a horse's, legs — a 
man growing to a horse, and so a horse-lover, most literally a 
Phil-hippos, Philip, or Joseph. The Lord, then, in this 
shaping of the heavens, is identified with Joseph, with Philip, 
and with the Sun in Sagittarius, or the Archer. 

* For the benefit of the learned reader, and to show that my translation is not an 
outlandish one. a« many at first sight might think, I subjoin the original text in English 
letters: " Anoki ha-El Elohi abik" i. e., '*I am the God (El=Bam) of the Gods {Elohi= 
Ram-suns) of thy father." Jacob's father was Abraham, the summer season, and was 
represented by Elohi, or the Ram-suns, or Aries during summer. Ha-El, or The Ram. or 
Aries, wa6 the God that went down into Egypt (winter) with Jacob. 



138 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Philip's wife's name was Herodias (heroine of the path, or 
zodiac = Virgo), the lady who longed for John the Baptist's 
head. She was the daughter of Herod (hero of the path, 
or zodiac = the Sun) the tetrarch (governor of four). She 
was also the daughter of Hercules (hero of the skin — the 
Sun). He is placed north of the equator on the solstitial 
colure, with a lion's skin thrown over his back. He is te- 
trarch, because, as the Sun, he is Lord of the four seasons. 
Directly below T him, on the opposite side of the colure, is 
Philip (Sagittarius), the son-in-law, with bow in line with the 
triple-headed dog of Hell in the hand of the father-in-law. 
Looking westward on Map 4 (Burritt's), we see Herodias, 
Philip's wife, precisely on the equinoctial colure. She is look- 
ing at her father as if asking for John-the-Baptist's head — a 
cup of cool water, which of a sultry d&j in August, is quite 
refreshing. The time was near the end of the dry season. 
Soon, however, the fall rains began and her longings were 
appeased. 

Now Philip was of Beth-mida, i. e., of the House-of-the- 
hunter= November. And the angel of the Lord (Aries in 
trine aspect with Sagittarius) spoke unto Philip, saying, " Arise 
and go toward the south in the way that goeth down from 
Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert'' (Acts viii. 26). The 
way here pointed out is the part of the Sun's ecliptic between 
the two tropics. Jerusalem is the Tropic of Cancer, and also 
Mount Sinai, or the Stinny Mount, and the Sun's northern 
terminus. Gaza (goat) is the Tropic of Capricorn, the opposite 
point of the sphere, and the capital of the Philistines. Thus 
Philip's journey was only of thirty days' duration, and ended 
at the winter solstice in December, which is desert. 

"In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away" 
(Acts viii. 33). As Philip, or the Sun, on his journey, went 
below the equator, his judgment was taken away, and as Uriah, 
he was slain, i. e., " his life is taken from the earth. " But the 
eunuch (good night), "a man of Ethiopia " (night), and Philip, 
though der.d, traveled on, whither they knew not, because 
crazy, until they came to a certain water — the river of Aqua- 
rius — where they took a good ducking, the best of treatment. 



JACOB AXD HIS SONS. 139 

for lunatics. On coming up out of the water, the spirit of the 
Lord (spring) caught away Philip (Sagittarius passed his zenith) 
that the eunuch (the winter night) saw him no more ; and he 
(Philip) went on his way rejoicing. Queen Candace and her 
eunuch were left to take care of themselves. Candace (daugh- 
ter of the Sun — Anthonys Class. Diet.) is the constellation 
Cassiopeia, wife and queen of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia. 
Both are conspicuous constellations seen in the heavens of a 
tine night in November or December. 

Elisha was Philip — was Joseph. Shaphat (Judge=Sun), 
his father, plowed with twelve yoke of oxen = the twelve 
months of the year. But Elisha (saving-Earn) plowed with 
the twelfth^ the last month of the Jewish civil year, when the 
Sun comes to Libra. Elijah (Sun-Ram) dropped his mantle 
upon Elisha, i. e., during winter Aries is Elisha, but Aries 
rejoining the Sun in spring, gets the name Elijah. Elisha was 
bald-headed (typical of winter). On his way up to heaven, or 
the summer solstice, he must pass the twins (Gemini), who 
cried out, " Go up thou bald-head," which so irritated the good 
prophet, that he sent two she-bears to devour them and so 
teach them better manners. In this latitude, the two she-hears 
(Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) never set ; so that when the 
children (Gemini), retiring from the Sun, set, it may be said 
the two bears tear them in pieces, as then they come immedi- 
ately over the twins. This feat of Elisha may remind the 
reader of the Dragon of "Wantly alluded to by the immortal 
Paine in his Age of Reason: 

' • Poor children three devoured he 
That could not with him grapple, 
And at one sup he ate them up, 
As hog would eat an apple.*' 

But Philip was found at Azotus (Acts viii, 40), or the city 
of destruction = mid-winter. Here he suffered martyrdom in 
Hierapolis, or the city of the Sun = winter solstice. He was 
" hanged up by the neck against a pillar," exactly as we find 
him hung "by the neck" upon the ecliptic beside the solstitial 
colure. Reqiiiescat in pace =F\,est in peace. 



lit) THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



12. Zeb ulun = C apricokx = December. 

'^Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea; and he 
shall be for an haven of ships ; and his border shall be unto 
Zidon." (Gen. xlix, 13.) 

The passage exhibits the sense of the original very imper- 
fectly. The following will come much nearer the truth : 

Zebulun shall let himself down to the place of the waters 
(Aquarius) ; his front shall extend to the Pitcher, while his 
" hinder part " shall border upon the hunter (Sagittarius). 

Tsidon (from tsid= hunter) I translate hunter. Tsidon, or 
Zidon, is November, the hunter's month. So far I have the 
support of Sir W. Drummond (Edip. Jud. p. 16). He disagrees 
with me, however, as to the Pitcher, and translates " an haven 
for a ship." In this he is certainly wrong. A glance at the 
map of Palestine will show that the portion of Zebulun bor- 
dered neither on Zidon nor the sea-coast. The careful reader 
will observe, too, that " haven " in the vulgar text has the sense 
of shore or coast. The word rendered ; * ships," I translate 
Pitcher ; because in Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 71, 1 find it means espec- 
ially u a vessel for containing water, as a bucket, urn, pitcher. 
so called from the idea of retaining and containing." Refer- 
ence being had to the constellation Aquarius, the name takes 
the plural form as in Elohim, Cherubim, Seraphim, etc. In 
the first sentence of the verse quoted, for " sea," I substitute 
" waters," because the original, yamin, is plural, and means 
waters. The original for " border' 1 is unquestionably hinder- 
part or rear-side. The text can have no possible reference to 
the little patch of ground marked out in our maps of Pales- 
tine, and labeled Zebulun. 

But who, or what was Zebulun ? This is the question. 
The name is made up of Zehul=z dwelling, and on = the Sun, 
i. e., Zebulun is the Sun's dwelling-place. Now, as the Sun 
had many dwelling-places (twelve), our next inquiry will be to 
find which particular dwelling Zebulun's is, and where located. 
From the description given in the text, one would say at once 
that Zebulun's house is Capricorn = the Goat of December. 



JACOB A XI) HIS SOXS. 141 

Should the evidence thus far be deemed inconclusive, more is 
at hand. In Kum. xiii, 10, it is said Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, 
was Zebulun's phylareh, or tribe-leader. Gaddiel is literally 
he-goat, and Sodi means circle, i. e., Gaddiel, the son of Sodi, 
is the he-goat of the circle, and, as there is but one he-goat in 
the circle, we must conclude that Gaddiel was the Capricorn 
of the Zodiac. 

The name Zebulun not only means a dwelling, but its rad- 
ical sense reveals the idea of sphericity. It indicates a mass 
rolled up in the form of a sphere, as the "dung-ball" (I de- 
rive my definitions mainly from Gesenius) "of the goat, 
sheep, etc.," but especially the little sphere of the dung-beetle. 
This insect, with the Egyptians, was sacred to the Sun, be- 
cause, no doubt, as with its tail-to exertions, it tumbled its little 
pellet of dung over the ground, it was thought to resemble the 
Lord bowling the Sun over the crystal vault of Heaven ! 
The analogy holds yet further. The persevering little insect, 
as he dumped his precious load into its resting-place, was made 
to personate the Lord tumbling the Sun into its Zebulun, or 
house = the winter solstice. Both equally awaited resurrec- 
tion. 

The scarabeeus was supposed to be male only ; hence it 
was made to signify the self-existent, self-begotten, and the 
paternal principle of nature, the Sun. Mystical ideas were 
also attached to it ; its thirty toes answered to the thirty days 
of the month, the deposition of its ball containing its eggs, was 
supposed to refer to the lunar month ; the motion of its ball 
referred to the motion of the Sun, and personified that lumi- 
nary. By the old astronomy, the motion of the Sun appeared 
to be retrograde as regarded the stars; hence the similitude. 
" The Egyptians believed that the beetle kind had no female, 
but that the males cast out their sperm into a round pellet of 
earth, which they roll about by thrusting it backward with 
their hinder feet, — and this in imitation of the Sun, which, 
while itself moves from west to east, turns the heavens the con- 
trary way " (Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, cap. 74). Its form, too 
in hieroglyphics, expressed being or existence. Painted with 
the four evangelists upon its corselet, it symbolized the year ; 



142 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

hence many of the early fathers of the church called Christ 
their good Scardbceus. This insect, too, turned upon its back, 
resembled a freighted boat, hence another reason why it typi- 
fied the Sun, as that luminary was often represented as being 
borne about in a boat. 

Again : Zebulun's border was unto Sarid, i. e., the one 
] eft = the last=]!^ovember (Josh, xix, 10), and his home was in 
Beth-horn the nether. There were two Beth-horns — nether 
and upper (Josh. xvi). Horon, from hor = cave, and on = 
Sun, is literally Sunh cave. The nether Horon is the winter 
hemisphere ; Beth-horn the upper, the summer hemisphere. 
Moses represented the former, Aaron the latter. A queer 
book is the Bible ; it dishes up the same story in numberless 
ways to confound the ignorant, that the few may rule them. 
But wisdom in time will lift up the unlearned and make them 
tree. 

" Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going ; and Issachar in thy tents " 
(Dent, xxxiii, 18). 

The meaning of this Averse is transparent. Zebulun is 
December, Issachar is June ; in the former is the winter, in 
the latter the summer solstice. Zebulun reports the shortest, 
Issachar the longest day in the year. Zebulun is the dying 
Sun, which is at once reborn ; hence, rejoice, Zebulun, in thy 
going out, because instantly thou comest in again — renewest 
thyself. Issachar is the Sun in his highest glory. In Zebulun 
(December) we have our Christmas day ; in Issachar (June), 
our St. John the Baptist's day. Both have, from time imme- 
morial, been magnificently celebrated by sumptuous feasts, 
games, and athletic sports, etc., and that, too, long before the 
names of Christ and John the Baptist were heard of. 

Jacob's Death and Burial. 

"And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his 
sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the 
ghost, and was gathered unto his people " (Gen. xlix, 33). 

~No sooner had his father "yielded up the ghost," than 
Joseph at once prepared for his interment. He embalmed him 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 143 

forty days ; i. e., he caused him to become of a reddish hue, 
like ripening wheat, or frost-killed vegetation ; or, as Dr. 
Adam Clarke suggests, tanned him as tanners do the hide of 
an ox, which took forty days. By these forty days, reference is 
had to the closing of the year at the spring equinox, and to the 
reddening of the east as the Sun enters the constellation Aries 
= the Ram = God, at the beginning of the following year. 
This is the season of Lent (in reference to the lengthening of 
the days and shortening of the nights), observed by the Jews, 
Mahomedans, Christians, etc., and corresponds to the forty 
days of Moses in the Mount Sinai ; to Christ's fast of forty 
days, and to all the other forties mentioned in the Bible. 

And there went up with Joseph (Sagittarius) to bury his 
father, " all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, 
and all the elders of the land of Egypt ; all the house of Joseph 
(i. e., all the winter constellations = Sagittarius, Capricornus, 
Aquarius and Pisces) to the threshing-floor of Atad " (^ thresh- 
ing-floor of the buckthorn" Fuerst; "Christ's thorn" Gese- 
nius), which is right by the spring equinox, where our Savior, 
the Sun, was crowned with thorns, the symbol of winter (Gen. 
iii, 18), and also of "the Divine presence" {Smith's Bib. Die. 
Art., Moses), and crucified, i. e., was made to pass the equinox. 
It was in this very thorn-bush the symbol of the Divine pres- 
ence (summer), that the angel of the Lord (Aries) appeared 
unto Moses " in a flame of fire " (Ex. iii, 2). 

Here Joseph and the Egyptians mourned seven days, dur- 
ing which period they made such a fuss that the Canaanites 
(Scorpio setting), who saw it, named the place Abel-mitzraim, 
the mourning of Egypt, or of the expiring winter. At this 
time, too, the winds changed, as they always do in these 
countries of the monsoons, where these stories were made up. 
This mourning of the Ancient people, or the Egyptians, 
answered to the rejoicing of the Jews at their passover feast, 
which also lasted seven days. The paschal supper, which was 
the same as Christ's supper, was eaten on the last of these 
seven days, in the very place where the Devil put it into the 
head of Judas to betray the Savior (John xiii, 2). Thus, while 
Joseph (winter) mourned, did his brethren (summer) rejoice! 



144 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

However, " Jacob's sons did unto him according as he com- 
manded them " (Gen. 1, 12). They carried him into the land 
of Canaan (Sun in Scorpio) where they buried him, in that 
mysterious cave of Machpelah (v. 13). The parties all re- 
turned into Egypt, i. e., winter came on, the sun being in Sag- 
ittarius. Jacob's sons seeing their father was dead, now found 
themselves in the hands of Joseph their brother. Fearing he 
might now take advantage of his power, and revenge himself 
of their evil treatment, they sent a messenger to Joseph asking 
his forgiveness. Joseph listened and wept as they spake to 
him — the rainy season was come on (v. 17). They even fell 
down before him — the summer constellations go down as 
those of winter come up — and said, behold we are thy ser- 
vants (v. 18). " But Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am 
I in the place of the Gods" (Elohim = Aries in summer)?* 
No : certainly he was not, for the Gods were at that moment 
powerless for good or evil — summer was past. 

So Joseph (the winter's supplies) comforted them, and 
spake kindly to them. Dwelling in Egypt (winter), he saw 
Ephraim's children (the year's produce) of the third generation, 
i. e., of spring, summer and winter. " The children of Machir, 
the son of Manasseh, were brought up on Joseph's knees" 
(v. 23), Machir (sold) is the gathered crops ; Manasseh (for- 
getiulness), the time the seed is germinating in the earth ; the 
children of Machir is. the- growing crop. Spring having by 
this time arrived, Joseph swore " an oath of the children of 
Israel, saying the Gods (Elohim= Aries during summer) will 
surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence " 
(v. 25). Why carry up with them Joseph's bones, and not 
Jacob's ? Because, when the year (Jacob) ends, there is 
nothing of it left ; but of the winter supplies (Joseph) there is 
always something left. So Joseph died, being a hundred and 
ten years old ; equal, probably, to the number of days the 
people had to be fed from the winter stores. Baron Bunsen 
has declared : " But that the three patriarchs should have 
lived, one after the other, 150 years, and even more, and the 

* Philo Judsens has, "I am in the place of God" (Bohn's Ed. vol, ii. p. 507). The 
difference amounts to nothing. The meaning in either case is that winter had taken the 
place of summer. 



JACOB AND HIS SONS. 145 

viceroy Joseph, their successor, 110, cannot be historical." 
{Egypt, vol. iii, p. 340.) 

Thus, we have reached the end of the first book of the 
Bible, wherein, as we have seen, is recounted the Genesis of 
the year, its seasons, and its months. The phenomena of the 
larger divisions of the year are also described in various ways, 
in considerable detail. We shall find the same subject con- 
tinued in connection with the twelve months, throughout the 
remainder of the Old Testament ; many of the old names 
being retained, while an infinity of new names are invented 
for the same agencies in connection with the new ones to be 
introduced from time to time, as occasion may require. I shall 
continue to employ the same method of analysis, which will 
enable me to ferret out the hidden, but true meaning of the 
text, in a manner so clear and comprehensive, that the common 
reader cannot fail to apprehend it. 
10 



CHAPTER X. 

THE EXODUS.— INTRODUCTION. 

"TTTE may as well right here, at the outset, forewarn the 
VV reader, once for all, of the nature of the Egypt of 
the Bible, more especially as we are all constantly associating 
this name, Egypt, with that of a country situated in the north- 
east of Africa. The Hebrew Mizraim is improperly translated 
Egypt, since Mizraim signifies distress, darkness, etc., a name 
no people ever conferred upon their native land. 

"Egypt was a name which the Greeks gave first to the 
Nile, and afterward to the country through which it flows" 
(Drummond's Origines, vol. ii, p. 52). According to this same 
learned author, the word Egypt signifies Agatho-dcemon = the 
good genius, Demiurge, or worlter-for-the-people — a meaning- 
diametrically opposed to the meaning of the Hebrew Mizraim 
= distress. Egypt — the country, I mean — was the son of 
the Nile, or, in the language of Herodotus, it is " an acquired 
country, the gift of the Nile " (Rawlinsorts Herod., vol. ii, p. 
5). The Egyptians, from whom the Greeks appear to have 
descended, were certainly of Asiatic origin, and of the Indo- 
European stock. (See Smith's Students' 1 Greece, p. 15). Col- 
onies from any country usually carry with them their tradi- 
tions, customs, and mythology, or religion, which bear a 
general resemblance throughout the world. 

Ham and Mizraim, his son (winter comes after summer), it 
is said, settled in Egypt, while it is not " known where Shem 
and Japheth chose their residence " (Drum. Orig., vol. ii, p. 
81). These three names are readily seen in Charma, Sherma, 
and Jayapeti, of the Hindu mytholgy (Asiat. Bes., vol. iii, p. 
67). 

Again, the name Egypt seems to be derived from the Sam 



THE EXODUS. 147 

scrit Gupta-stan, i. e., Guarded-land, which was esteemed 
holy = the sunny-land of summer. Dropping the stan of 
Gupta-stan, and Gupta remains, to which prefix A, and we 
have Agupta, to be readily converted into Egypt. Thus, the 
idea of distress does not enter into the name Egypt. 

On the other hand, the Mizraim (distress) of the Bible, 
wrongfully translated Egypt, also appears to be of Sanscrit 
origin — Jffisra-stan = thorny-land — winter. {Asiat. Res., 
vol. iii, pp. 96-100). 

These names all being of foreign origin, and having put on 
their modern forms, the legends into which they at first 
entered, were, of course, up before the country now called 
Egypt was thought of. They are mythological, and, having 
followed the people who promulgated them, are as applicable, 
with slight modifications, to America, as to Hindustan, or 

Egypt- 

If this story of the Exodus be only applicable to the coun- 
try now called Egypt, how comes it that none of Egypt's great 
monuments — the pyramids, the sphinx, the temples of Dende- 
rah, of Philse, of Karnac, of Thebes, the various colossi, the 
labyrinth, etc., etc., are not mentioned, or even alluded to in 
the Bible ? How happens it that Herodotus, the father of his- 
tory, and the most accredited of the ancient historians, who 
traveled into, and examined most critically, the records, monu- 
ments, and antiquities of Egypt, speaks not a word of the 
Jews or Israelites ? How happens it that not one historian 
outside the Bible has ever noticed the Jews as a nation ? Oh ! 
but Josephus — well, what of Josephus? Only this: "Crit- 
ical research among the Jews into the remote periods of Scrip- 
ture history, in so far as deserving of notice in the history of 
science, ends with Josephus." {Bunserts Egypt, vol. i, p. 
206.) As Josephus drew largely from the Bible, the conclu- 
sion need not be stated, — that the Jews were never a nation. 
We know they are not now ; and the Jews of the Bible were 
what Bunsen calls them — "mythological Semites." {Egypt, 
vol. iv, p. 422.) They were scattered from the very first (Gen. 
xlix, 7) — were nothing more than a religious sect — "And 
there dwelt at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every 



148 



THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



nation under heaven" (Acts ii, 5). So we have dwelling with 
us in America, Free-masons, devout men, out of every nation 
under heaven ; but who ever dreamed of them as a nation \ 
I conclude, then, that the Egypt of the Bible is not the Egypt 
of geography. It is a mythical name. 

Again : if the Israelites sojourned in Egypt but four gene- 
rations, and during that short space of time increased from 
" seventy souls," (only two of them females, see Colenso on the 
Pent., part i, p. 162), so that at their exodus they numbered 
600,000 fighting men, implying a population in all of over 
2,400,000, how happens it that few or no Jewish remains have 
been found in Egypt? Of Egyptian antiquities vast quantities 
have been discovered, and are still being excavated. IWard 
Taylor, who saw M. Auguste Mariette, at his work in Egypt, 
in 1851, tells us in his " Egypt Revisited" that " he saw 
him still (1874) at his work; that " Mariette's collection had 
opened his eyes as to the comparative value of Egyptian 
museums, the most valuable one in the world beino: in Cairo," 
and that " Mariette's discoveries, thus • far, have thrown less 

light upon the sojourn of the 
Israelites in Egypt, than many 
might have expected or wished." 
Where, then, are we to look for 
the fragments of the arts of the 
ancient Jews, as a nation ? In 
Brobdingnag! 

In order to account for the 
extraordinary fecundity above 
alluded to, Bishop Patrick sug- 
gests that " by the blessing of 
(lod each woman might have 
brought forth six children at a 
time." 

Now, who can doubt the 
truth of the good Bishop's con- 
jecture after having looked upon 
the accompanying picture of 
one of these ancient or breasted 



FIG. 3 




THE EXODUS. 149 

women of the Hebrews? The cut (fig. 3) was taken from 
Drummond's Edipus Judaicus. Of course the reader will not 
mistake her for a real woman. She is the Diana of the Ephes- 
ians. Being the offspring of the Amazons, or winter months, 
she must personate the summer months. This will account for 
her proliticness. 

This 2,400,000, then, having wandered forty years in a dense 
column about 25 miles long, without a purpose, at length came 
to the land of Canaan. Into this small territory of only 11,000 
square miles, they rushed with their flocks, etc., where they 
found " seven nations greater and mightier than Israel itself" 
(Deut. vii, 1), thus increasing the number of its inhabitants to 
over 17,000,000, or, 1,763 persons to the square mile, to say 
nothing of their flocks ! War became inevitable ; w<hich con- 
tinuing, after a time they found themselves reduced to one- 
sixth the number that left Egypt, the balance (ten tribes) 
having somehow disappeared, how and where, nobody ever 
could or would tell !* 

So much, then, for this mythical Egypt, and the equally 
mythical Israel, held in a state of captivity within it. 

Moses, f 

As Joseph died, he told his brethren : " The Gods (Elohim) 
will surely visit yon, and bring you out of this land (Egypt= 
winter) unto the land (summer) which they swore (sevened 
out) to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob " (Gen. 1, 24). 

It appears from the account, that the children of Israel, in 
their bondage in Egypt were there treated harshly and sub- 
jected to hard bondage, as were the builders of Babel ; that, 
notwithstanding their cruel treatment, they, by the aid of 
Joseph (winter's provisions) their brother, whom they sold 
into Egypt, had multiplied so rapidly that the new king Pha- 

* It was necessary, as the Jewish nation grew up, mushroom-like, that it should disap- 
pear as rapidly, or the story would defeat itself, if indeed it does not anyhow. 

t The name Moses comes from mosheh=to draw out, not to be drawn out, as in Ex. ii, 10. 
The sense of the origiual is active, not passive. Hence it is readily seen that Moses is hut 
a synonym of the Aquarius, or Water-drawer of the Zodiac. True, his mother says (Ex. 
ii. 10) she named him Moses " because she drew him out of the water," which is also 
strictly true; for as Virgo sets below the western horizon, Moses, or Aquarius, comes up 
out of the water = the rainy season ; from the lower into the upper hemisphere. 



150 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

raoh (new year's Sun) thought best to check their further 
increase, lest his power be overthrown. To this end, he spake 
to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah (brightness = summer) and 
Puah (mouth = winter, because winter consumes the surplus of 
summer), but they were always tardy, and thus the m^i-children 
(winter zodiacal constellations) were always saved alive. There- 
fore "the Gods dealt well with the midwives " (Ex. i, 20), i. e., 
they (the Elohim= Aries in summer) kept company with each 
alternately at the equinoxes — with Shiphrah at the spring 
equinox, and with Puah at the fall equinox. So. the people 
waxed great and became exceedingly mighty. Notwithstand- 
ing their prosperity in respect of numbers, they were far from 
happy, and sighed for liberty ; but they were without a leader, 
through whom they might attain it. The Lord, however, 
always kind to his own, soon supplied this deficiency ; for he 
caused Jochebed (glory-of-the-Lord = Yirgo in spring), who had 
just married her nephew, Amram (high-people := summer 
months), to conceive at the spring equinox (the very time 
when the Virgin's annunciation was made), and, at the follow- 
ing winter solstice, to bear a son (Aquarius). When Jochebed 
saw that he was a " goodly," she hid him three months, which 
brought the time up to the spring equinox ; when she could 
conceal him no longer, because " the sun had risen upon the 
earth," i. e., had crossed the equinoctial line (Gen. xix, 23). 
She, therefore, abandoned him in an ark of bulrushes, in the 
flags by the river's brink (Ex. ii, 3), to take his chance of life 
or death. 

But "his sister (mother?) stood afar off (on the opposite or 
west side of the zodiac, where she — Yirgo — appears every 
spring) to wit what would become of him;" when behold, the 
daughter of Pharaoh (this same Yirgo in the night hemi- 
sphere), coming down to the river (the latter rain) to bathe 
herself in its waters, discovered him, took charge of him and 
reared him ; i. e., brought him round the circle in conjunction 
with the Sun again. 

" Now when Moses was grown " (i. e., when Aquarius rises 
heliacally, or before the Sun), " he spied an Egyptian smiting 
a Hebrew (winter smiting summer), and he looked this way 



THE EXODUS. 151 

and that way, and perceiving himself unseen (the Sun's rays 
hid him), he slew the Egyptian," i. e., winter was followed by 
summer. " But when he went out the second day (i. e., after 
he passed the summer solstice), he saw two Hebrews (the two 
halves of summer) striving together." In attempting to pacify 
them, he was reminded by the first half of summer, which 
witnessed his act, of his murder of the day before, became 
frightened, and, on learning that Pharaoh (the winter Sun) 
intended to slay him, fled into the land of Midian (strife = the 
point between winter and summer). Here " he sat down by 
a well." Beer-sheba=the end of the seventh month, when the 
" former rain " begins. 

" Now the priest of Midian* had seven daughters (Ex. ii, 16), 
who drew water for their flocks, when the shepherds came and 
drove them away," out Moses stood up (i. e., Aquarius came to 
his meridian- — struck the rock) and watered their flock, i. e., 
the rainy season beginning in October, came on. This enabled 
the poor girls to return home sooner than usual. Reuel, alias 
Jethro, inquired the cause. The girls told him ; and Moses, 
in requital of his kindness, was called into the family and 
received consolation from Zipporah, Jethro's daughter ; i. e., 
Moses, or Aquarius, passing from the dark into the light hemi- 
sphere, married Zipporah (the singing bird), the Yirgo of 
spring. By Zipporah Moses had two sons — Eliezer (Kam- 
helps=summer), and Gershom (A -stranger-here= winter, i. e., 
winter comes after summer). 

But the Gods (Aries during summer), the king of Egypt 
(the Sun of winter) being dead, on hearing the groaning of the 
children of Israel, remembered the covenant (spring equinox) 
which they had made with Abraham, with Isaac and with 
Jacob, and had respect for the children of Israel. So Moses 
(Aquarius) led the flock (the summer constellations) of his 
father-in-law to the back side of the desert' (winter), and came 
to the mountain of the Gods (Elohim), to Horeb (the begin- 

* This priest of Midian (fall equinox) afterward became Moses' father-in-law. In 
Ex. ii, 18, he is called Reuel (friend of God=Earth in conjunction with Aries); in Ex. iii, 1, 
he is named Jethro. The latter, and most common, name signihes redundancy, or some- 
thing over, and refers to the month September, which, added to the six previous months 
of the year, gives one more than the half of twelve. His seven daughters were these same 
seven summer months. 



152 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ning of the dry season — lloreb being the Hebrew for dry). 
Here the angel of the Lord (Aries) appeared to Moses " in a 
flame of fire out of the midst of a burning bush " (the Sun). 
" The bush (Sun) burned with fire, and was not consumed " 
(Ex. iii, 2). That is, Aries, or God, rising in conjunction with 
the Sun, was " in combust of the Sun." (See Lilly's Christian 
Astrology, p. 113, London, 1647.) " Out of the burning bush 
the Gods called, Moses ! Moses ! ! and he said, Here am I." 
" And he said, Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes from 
off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
ground," i. e., the ground is warm, and it is time to go barefoot ! 
So Moses, or Aquarius, is represented barefoot on our celestial 
globes. After which the Gods again announced themselves 
not only as the Gods of Abraham, the Gods of Isaac and the 
Gods of Jacob, but also as the Gods of Moses' father, Amram ; 
whence we find that Amram and the Patriarchs above named 
were all the same=^ seven summer months. But Moses was 
afraid to look upon the Gods, and hid his face, i. e., the stars 
of Aquarius were effaced by the brighter effulgence of the Sun. 
Moses (Aquarius) and God (Aries) are, in the language 
of astrology, in sextile aspect, or sixty degrees apart, as regards 
each other, in the zodiac. In this relation they converse 
together, as they apparently traverse the circle of the heavens. 
Moses, taking the lead, goes down into Egypt (winter), while 
God (Aries) follows on to observe the afflictions of his people 
(the summer constellations). Having done this, the Gods, on 
his return, announce to Moses their intention of sending him 
down into Egypt " to bring forth his people, the children of 
Israel, out of Egypt, unto a good land and large ; unto a 
land flowing with milk and honey " (summer). (Ex. iii, 8-11.) 
But Moses demurred, and the Gods promised, " certainly we 
will be with thee." Moses, knowing the Gods to be reliable, 
as they most assuredly are, asked what he should say when he 
came unto the children of Israel, provided they asked for his 
name. Whereat the Gods exclaimed iTHN "lttffc ITHS* 5 " T 
WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE," and directed Moses to say 
unto them, " I WILL BE, hath sent me unto you " (Ex. iii, 14). 
In this translation, which I affirm to be the correct one, I have 



THE EXODUS. 153 

the support of Dr. Adam Clarke, who translates with me, " I 
will be what I will be? (See his comment in this place.) 

Now, if Moses hadn't been puzzled as to the name his 
Lord would assume, when he (Moses) got down into Egypt 
with the children of Israel, would he have insulted the sov- 
ereign ruler of the universe by asking what he should call 
him ? 'Moses was in doubt, hence his question. The Gods 
were not offended; hence the answer, "I will be what I will 
be? Tell them " I will be hath sent me unto you." Now 
an acquaintance with the Hebrew will disclose at once the true 
meaaing of the text, and the reason of Moses' doubt. The 
parties, Aries and Aquarius, were in the light or summer 
hemisphere. Aries, being behind Aquarius, urges him ahead. 
Moses knew the Gods then as Elohim., but he couldn't tell 
exactly when, as the two would soon be divided by the equi- 
nox, they would put off the Elohim and take on the El, God's 
name while in the night hemisphere. Hence the Gods 
(Elohim) direct Moses to go ahead, and tell the Israelites 
U I will be hath sent me unto you." However, in the next 
verse, that there might be no mistake, the Gods directed 
Moses to use his old name : the Gods of Abraham, etc. 

Notwithstanding the positive promise of the Gods (v. 12), 
accompanied, as it was, by the assurance, " they shall hearken 
to thy voice" (v. 18), Moses gave the Gods the flat contradic- 
tion — "Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my 
voice ; for they will say the Lord (Jakveh = summer) hath not 
appeared unto thee " (Ex. iv, 1). Here they are, the Gods and 
Moses, at it again — punning upon names. Jahveh being sum- 
mer, of course, never appears to elik, to thee, my El = God, 
or Aries, in winter.* 

Instead of reproving Moses for his ill manners, the " Lord " 
(they are yet in the summer hemisphere) said unto him, " What 
is that in thine hand ? And he said, a rod. And he said, cast 
it on the ground. And he (Moses) cast it on the ground, and. 
it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the 

* The reader will please remember that while Aries was in the summer hemisphere r 
his name was Elohim, in the plural; but when in the winter or dark hemisphere, it was 
EL in the singular. This rule, as I have before indicated, has its exceptions, but they 
are few. 



154 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Lord said nnto Moses, put forth thy hand and take it by the 
tail " (Ex. iv, 4). In casting his rod on the ground, Moses 
went into the lower hemisphere ; and, in taking it by the tail, 
he (Aquarius) comes in conjunction with the Sun at the winter 
solstice. 

With the ancients the figure of a coiled serpent was a 
favorite, as well as an apt, beautiful and appropriate emblem of 
the Sun's path or ecliptic. The two extremities were supposed 
to unite in the winter solstice with the head in the direction of 
the Sun's course. Thus the tail half would typify the length- 
ening of the days up to the summer solstice, while the head 
half of the animal would denote the decrease of the day's 
length, for the balance of the circle or year. The Lord (the 
summer solstice) directed Moses " to take it by the tail." This, 
at that time, doubtless, fixed Moses' place at the winter solstice. 
From this point, the serpent " was for a rod in his hand." In 
Ex. iv, 20, it is called " the rod of the Gods " (Elohim). 

As a further proof of his divine mission, the Lord (summer) 
turned Moses' hand, which naturally w r as of the color of the 
mark put upon Cain, to a snowy white ; and shortly after 
caused it to resume its wonted hue. This miracle has reference 
simply to the position of Aquarius, as regards the Sun and 
earth. When a day constellation, i. e., when Aquarius and the 
Sim are on the same side of the earth, his hand is leprous ; 
when they are on opposite sides of the earth, it has its normal 
color. If, armed with these awe-inspiring credentials, he failed 
in his mission, he was empowered, as a last resort, to make use 
of a third miracle — the changing of water into blood; i.e., 
he might extend his journey up to the spring equinox, where 
" the water which thou takest out of the river shall become 
blood upon the dry" i. e., where the atmosphere would appear 
red at sunrise. The word " land" in the vulgar text is an 
interpolation ; it is not in the Hebrew text. 

Nevertheless, Moses still remonstrated, insisting (being the 
genius of winter) that he was not eloquent, but was "slow of 
speech and of a slow tongue" (Ex. iv, 10). The cold probably 
stiffened his tongue somewhat. Thus the Lord, though "his 
anger was kindled against Moses," found it was of no use to 



THE EXODUS. 155 

parley with Moses alone. He must avail himself of additional 
means. Accordingly he associated with Moses his brother Aaron 
(the genius of summer) " who could speak well." " Behold," 
said the Lord to Moses, " he cometh forth to meet thee." " He 
shall be thy spokesman, and thou shalt be to him instead of 
the Gods " (Elohim). Here we are again — into the enigmas ! 
Why should Moses (Aquarius), when he descends into the 
winter hemisphere, " be to Aaron (the summer solstice) instead 
of the Gods ? " Because, when Aries goes below the equator, 
" there are no Gods " (Elohim), his name then, by the inter- 
vention of the earth between Aries and the Sun, becomes 
simply El. Coming in conjunction with the Sun, Moses 
becomes the leader ; and the Lord further directs : "And thou 
shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do 
signs;" i. e., by means of the Sun's ecliptic, he will be able to 
pass over the signs of the Zodiac (Ex. iv, IT). 

The matter between the Lord and Moses, being thus at last 
settled, the latter, having obtained his father-in-law's consent 
(Ex. iv, 18), and being assured of the Lord that all the men 
which sought his life, were dead (the previous six months 
during which he was in the upper or light hemisphere), " took 
his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned 
to Egypt," with "the rod of the Gods in his hand" (v. 20). 
Soon after Aaron, by direction of the Lord, having set out to 
meet Moses, fell in with him "in the mount of the Gods" 
(spring equinox) when he kissed him (v. 27), Aaron, or Leo, 
being in the western horizon. 

The brothers, in order to a little preliminary practice, to 
get their hands in, " did the signs in the sight of the people. 
And the people believed ; " and, on hearing " that the Lord 
had visited the children of Israel" (Leo, Virgo, Libra and 
Scorpio, the children of Israel, were at this point — the winter 
solstice — yet above the equinoctial line, and in the presence of 
the Lord), " bowed their heads and worshiped " (set). Mean- 
while the twin brothers ventured before Pharaoh (winter) with 
their " Thus Saith the Lord." But the grim monarch of 
winter, no way disturbed by their presence, faced them boldly, 
as was his wont, with his — " Who is the Lord, that I should 



156 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither 
will I let Israel go " (Ex. v, 2). This was manly language, 
and such as befitted Pharaoh, who was every inch a king. 

Instead of answering this bold but sensible question, the 
poor brothers, scared out of their wits, could do no more than 
to recite the lesson taught them by the Lord (Ex. iii, 18), where- 
fore Pharaoh ordered them to their tasks ; Moses, however, re- 
turned unto the Lord and began to upbraid him " for evil- 
entreating this people," when the Lord, instead of rebuking* 
him, or showing any sign of disapprobation of his conduct, 
turned upon him with — " Xow shalt thou see what I will do 
to Pharaoh ; " and repeating what he had said so many times 
before, assured Moses that he was the Lord, etc. (Ex. vi, 1, 2). 

Thus, the Lord, no way discouraged, determined Moses 
should " try again? As before, Moses plead to be excused. 
The children of Israel had not heard him, and he was of " un- 
circumcised lips " (Ex. vi, 12). Many, referring to Ex. iv, 25, 
may think that Moses fibbed here a little — a very natural 
conclusion with those unacquainted with the esoteric sense of 
the sacred narrative — but I can assure them that he told the 
truth. Others would get around the apparent difficulty by 
supposing it was Moses' younger son, Zipporah circumcised. 
This last also is true, as I am able to show. The right of cir- 
cumcision had reference to the completion of the year of any 
planetary or stellar body. More particularly is this the case 
when the Sun comes in conjunction with any heavenly body 
at, or near the spring equinox, as then the earth is hare, 
which is exactly what the Hebrew arel, means — not circum- 
cision, as translated, though it may be so construed. This 
explanation, then, shows that Moses, or any others of the heav- 
enly host, must be circumcised every year. And though Moses 
had been circumcised numberless times, he had not been that 
year, for he had not yet come before Pharaoh, or the winter 
solstice. 

Oh ! but Zipporah circumcised her son. Of course she did ; 
hut her son was her husband. This the text distinctly declares : 
" Then Zipporah took a sharp stone (the stone Ebenezer) 
and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his (her son's) 



THE EXODUS. 157 

feet, and said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me " (Ex. 
iv, 25). Language cannot be plainer. 

Now, in explanation : Moses bad two sons, Eliezer and 
Gersbom. The first personified summer, was not circumcised, 
because he didn't reach the end of the year. Hence he was 
" cut off from his people " (Gen. xvii, 14). Gersbom was born 
in a strange land, as his name imports. He thus represented 
both hemispheres with his father; and both coming to the 
spring equinox at the same moment, were circumcised by Zip- 
porah, who, coming down to the western horizon, seized the 
stone, cut off the "foreskin" of each, and cast it at their 
(Moses') feet — Aquarius having just entered the upper hemis- 
phere. (See Zodiac.) Thus we can understand how the Bible 
worthies intermarried — the father the daughter, the son the 
mother, etc. 

But, to return. The Lord would take no excuse. " See," said 
he, " I have made thee a God (Elohim) to Pharaoh, and Aaron 
shall be thy prophet " (Ex. vii, 1). Thus, when the Sun is in 
Aquarius (Moses), it is mid-winter, and Moses is a God, i. e., 
he is in the cast in the place of God (Sun in Aries) to Pharaoh ; 
and Aaron, being the opposite point in the heavens, becomes 
the prophet, foreteller, or forerunner of Moses ; the same as 
John -the -Baptist is the foreteller, or precursor of Jesus 
Christ. 

Thus endowed, in addition to the power to work miracles 
before bestowed upon them, the brothers came before Pharaoh. 
Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and it became a ser- 
pent, i. e., summer passed away and winter came on. Pha- 
raoh's sorcerers (five of them, for we must not forget that 
Joseph presented five of his brethren unto Pharaoh — Gen. 
xlvii, 2) now took their turn, and cast down their rods ; and 
they also " became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up 
their rods, i. e., winter passed away and summer returned. 
Thus we find nothing supernatural in all this. The Sun's 
ecliptic was symbolized by a coiled serpent, with its two ends, 
head and tail, united in the winter solstice. Pharaoh's por- 
tion, of course, was in the winter hemisphere, and his sorcer- 
ers personified the five winter months : October, November, 



158 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

December, January, February. Aaron's were made up of the 
seven summer months. 

" But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart " (Ex. vii, 13). 
That is, the Sun apparently moving backward in his ecliptic, 
sent Aries down lower and lower, day by day, and month by 
month, into the winter hemisphere, and so, the cold increasing 
pari passu, hardened Pharaoh's heart = mid-winter. Thus 
encouraged by God (Aries), who seemed intent upon his 
destruction, Pharaoh remained unintimidated and confident. 
The Lord, therefore, to overcome the obstinacy himself had 
fostered, thought proper to employ accessory aid for the accom- 
plishment of his purpose. This would require time, for it was 
yet a long way to spring, and time could be annihilated in no 
other than the ordinary way. A system of plagues was, there- 
fore, inaugurated, which, in the end, would prove successful, and 
bring the stubborn old infidel and arch-enemy of the world, to 
terms. These plagues were in number ten, equal to the num- 
ber of times Laban changed Jacob's wages. They are sepa- 
rately treated of below. Of course, we shall find nothing in 
them but natural phenomena. 

1. The Plague of Blood. 

The Lord (the Sun) having learned (Ex. vii. 15) that Pha- 
raoh (winter Sun) would arrive at the river's brink (winter 
solstice) in the morning (of the new year) directed Moses 
(Aquarius) to meet him there (Sun in Aquarius) and demand 
of him, " saying, let my people go " (Ex. vii, 16). The 
request not being instantly complied with, Moses smote the 
waters of the river (the dawn), " and all the waters in the river 
turned into blood " (Ex. vii, 20). " The magicians (five winter 
months) of Egypt did so with their enchantments" (Ex. vii, 
22). That is, the mingling of light with darkness and the 
refraction of the Sun's rays produced a reddening of the 
Eastern horizon at sunrise, and brought forth, riding in her 
golden chariot, rose-fingered Aurora, the bright goddess of the 
morn. The Fishes (Pisces), following in this river of blood, 
soon died, i. e., as the morning passed away. "And the waters- 



THE EXODUS. 159 

stank," i. e., the morning air sometimes (especially in those 
countries where cleanliness is not well attended to) had a pecu- 
liar odor which was reckoned unwholesome. This was the 
river Styx (dread), a famous river of Hell (midwinter), whose 
waters were regarded with superstitious awe, because, being so 
cold and 'poisonous as to break any vessel with which they 
came in contact, except the hoof of a horse or ass. (Chambers' 
Encyc, Art. Styx.) 

Having aided in the working of this miracle, Pharaoh, of 
course, was not troubled by the result, but "turned and went 
into his own house," while the people, as before, got their 
water wherever they could find it. Pharaoh took the thing 
coolly, while the Lord was measurably disappointed. 

"And seven days were fulfilled after the Lord had smitten 
the river " (Ex. vii, 25). 

These seven days were spent much as they are at present, 
in the various feasts of the holydays — as Christmas, or the 
Feast of Christ, the E"ew-born Sun, Feast of the New Year, 
etc., during which great emulation was sometimes got up 
among the singers, the reward of the victor being a goat, in 
memory of the Goat (Capricorn) of December just deceased. 
The songs sung on these occasions were called tragedies, i. e., 
songs in memory of the Goat's death. Hence the term 
tragedy came to apply to any fatal or mournful event. 
Tragedy =goat-song. 

"These festivals of Dionysus (or the Sun) at Athens and 
elsewhere were all solemnized in the months nearest the 
shortest day, where his worshipers conceived the god himself 
to be affected " (Anthonys Smith's Diet, of Greek and .Roman 
Antiquities). " They were capable of expressing the extremes 
of sadness and wild lamentation as well as the enthusiasm of 
joy" {Ibid). 

2. The Plague of Frogs. 

Thus Pharaoh had one whole week in which to take breath ; 



the shortest time possible for the practiced eye to discern 
whether or not the Sun had made any progress in his return 
from his southern tour. The Lord again egged on the two 



160 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

brothers, and "frogs came up." Pharaoh's "magicians did 
so with their enchantments " (Ex. viii, 7). The Sun was still 
in Aquarius, near, or in its first degrees. 

As these were a peculiar kind of frogs, being bred in mid- 
winter, and entering into every apartment of the Egyptians' 
houses, even into their ovens and kneading troughs, I suspect 
they may not after all have been an animal production. This 
legend was probably derived from the Hindu story of Bheki, 
or the Frog-prince, "which denotes the San as it rests upon 
the water," or just above the horizon, as it always does near 
the winter solstice, sprawled out as in the act of leaping into 
the water. Thus, when Moses and Aaron, assisted by Pharaoh, 
stretched forth their hands, up came Bheki, or the Frog-prince, 
or the winter Sun, with his hateful progeny, in the form of 
cold windy weather, which entered into every imaginable nook 
and corner of the land — into their ovens and kneading troughs. 
(Cox's Myth., vol. i, pp. 165-400.) 

3. The Plague or Lice. 

Again, Aaron stretched forth his hand, and " all the dust 
of the land became lice in man and in beast." Gesenius (Heb. 
Lex., p. 476) would render the w T ord here translated lice, "gnats." 
So rendered, these "gnats" must have been such as nip the 
boy's ears of a frosty morning in winter. Dr. Adam Clarke 
thinks if the vermin were truly lice, " this plague must have 
been exceedingly dreadful and afflicting to the Egyptians, who 
were an exceedingly cleanly people." JSTo doubt the Doctor is 
right; and this will account for the failure of Pharaoh's ma- 
gicians to imitate their master's degraded and dirty slaves, who 
could breed them without end, ad infinitum. 

Other mythologies furnish parallel stories to this. " In the 
ninth Esthonian story," says De Gubernatis, " the son of the 
thunder, by means of a louse, obliges the thunder-god to scratch 
his head for a moment, and thus to let fall his weapon of thun- 
der, which is instantly carried off' to Hell " {Zoological My- 
thology, vol. ii, p. 222.) The next parallel I will take from 
Acts xii, 23. It is the case of Herod Agrippa, who had this 



THE EXODUS. 161 

" louse disease/' See Robinson's Greek and English Lex. of 
the New Testament, under (rxuXyxoftpcDToq. The name Herod 
comes from the Greek Hero and odos—apath\ i. e., Herod was 
the Hero-of-the-path = the Sun. Agrippa, from Ager—a field, 
and hippos=:a horse, i. e., Agrippa means a horse-field— Sagit- 
tarius, the first of the winter constellations, by the tripartite 
division of the year. 

The third case I shall adduce is that of Pheretima. " Her 
body swarmed with worms, which ate her flesh while she was 
still alive." {Herod., B. iv, 205). Pheretima means honor-bear- 
ing, reference being had to the constellation Yirgo, or the 
Virgin Mary, who bore the Savior, or the Sun at the winter 
solstice. " She was still alive, i. e., Yirgo was, at the time, in 
the upper hemisphere, though on her decline toward the oppo- 
site or southern hemisphere. Blastus (or the germinator=the 
winter solstice) was Herod's chamberlain, because the days be- 
gin to lengthen from this point. 

The reader will find on examination, that all these and sim- 
ilar legends have reference to the winter season, or to Tyre and 
Sidon, which denote the same thing. 

4. The Plague of Flies. 

The myth-maker here returns to the "water" (winter sol- 
stice, — Ex. viii, 20), to acquaint his readers with a remarkable 
phenomenon which happened when " the waters of the river 
were turned to blood." In this, as in the other case, Moses 
was directed to stand before Pharaoh early in the morning, 
i. e., at the beginning of the year, when the Sun would rise in 
Aquarius at mid- winter, from which time the year was reck- 
oned to begin (Eneyc. of Relig. Knowl., Art. Year). 

The flies, the subject of this plague, were evidently not our 
common house-flies, since the Hebrew oreb or ereb, rendered 
"flies in this passage, signifies the evening and thence the west 
also. Let us pursue this idea. Dr. Smith {Old Test. Hist., p. 
1 47), thinks this word ereb has reference to the scarabceus sacer 
(sacred beetle) so frequently met with in Egyptian sculpture. 
This is not at all improbable. In the astrological remains of 
11 



162 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Egypt, a scarabmis or beetle is used to denote the constellation 
Cancer. Fuerst (Heb. Lex., p. 1092) says, " we must under- 
stand by it an animal scorpion-like, and stinging," and refers 
us to the Greek karabos = & crab, as identical with it. >7ow 
let us note that when Aquarius is about to rise with the Sun, 
Cancer or the Crab settles down upon the earth in the west. 
And right here at the setting of Cancer, at the winter solstice, 
it is that the days begin to lengthen, and, according to the old 
adage, "the cold begins to strengthen." It is in this way and 
in no other, as I can see, that " flies," as the Hebrew ereb is 
translated, could be sent upon the earth in mid-winter. The 
learned Jacob Bryant says, " the season in which the frogs ap- 
peared, and these insects swarmed, was contrary to all expe- 
rience. They used to be produced in Egypt at a different, and 
for the most part, an opposite time of the year" {Plagues of 
Egypt, p. 91). 

It was the cold weather, undoubtedly, which is usually at- 
tendant upon the setting of the constellation of Cancer, that is 
alluded to by this plague ; and a plague it truly is, which 
sorely annoys most people, especially the poor, every winter. 

5. The Murrain Plague. 

Though it was now near the spring equinox, as we learn 
from the use of the term Lord-God, the weather was still cold. 
The Lord-God (Sun in Aries) of the Hebrews (the seven sum- 
mer months) demanded of Pharaoh (the winter) the release of 
the seven summer constellations, now held in Sheol, Hades or 
Hell, i. e., he demanded that winter should cease. The cold 
still continuing, the plague of the Murrain next ensued. The 
Lord took good care, however, to " sever between the cattle of 
Israel and the cattle of Egypt " (Ex. ix, 4), i. e., between those 
that would survive the cold, and those that would not — be- 
tween the healthy and robust, and the sickly and weak. The 
latter all belonged to Egypt (winter) and died ; the former all 
belonged to the children of Israel (summer) and lived. 

Let it be noted that " the Lord did that thing (the murrain) 
on the morrow," i. e., in the following month (April), the most 



THE EXODUS. 163 

trying month in the whole year for lean and sickly cattle. The 
word murrain comes from the Latin morire, to die. 

6. The Plague of Boils and Blains. 

Boils and blains mostly occur in spring, indicating that 
they are in some way connected with a low temperature of the 
air. Chilblains, it is well known, are always the result of cold, 
or, perhaps it would be better to say, of alternations of heat 
and cold. Both these agencies are referred to in the text. 
We may also observe that, though both the brothers were ad- 
dressed by the Lord, Moses (Aquarius) was the actual agent in 
the production of this plague of the Boils and Blains. "Moses 
sprinkled the ashes up toward heaven " (Ex. ix, 10). Aaron 
couldn't do it, because, as Moses was in the upper hemisphere, 
Aaron, as his opposite, must be in the lower one. It was 
Moses, then, who converted the watery vapors of the air into 
icy particles, and thus laid the foundation for these plagues 
now brought forth by the returning warm weather. 

Indeed the word abak, here translated " small dust," has 
reference to the watery vapors which form the clouds, and 
which in Nahum i, 3, are figuratively styled the "dust of 
God's feet," i. e., of the Ram Aries traversing the lower or 
foot-half of the Zodiac. I make no doubt but these boils and 
blains were precisely the same as poor Job was smitten with 
(Job ii, 7). The Lord delivered Job over to Satan ; the Lord 
gave the Israelites into the hands of Pharaoh, the same power 
exactly. Both suffered at the instance of the Lord, in their 
persons and in their property. The Israelites as well as Job, 
after great losses and almost intolerable sufferings, were finally 
saved and again brought into the favor of the Lord, — passed 
from the winter into the summer hemisphere. 

7. The Hailstone Plague. 

Still Pharaoh held out — "winter lingered in the lap of 
spring." There was a conflict of the elements; the weather 
was changeable, and the winds blew cold. So the Lord directed 
Moses (Aquarius) to stand before Pharaoh (the Sun), early in 



164 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the morning, and say : " Thus saith the Lord-God (Sun in 
Aries) of the Hebrews (the constellations which cross the 
equator to the north during summer), let my people go." But 
Pharaoh looked glum ; and the Lord-God exclaimed : " Exalt- 
est thou thyself against my people?" i. e., wilt thou (O Sun), 
persist in sending us cold weather, when we should have warm 
weather? "Behold, I will cause it to rain a very grievous 
hail, such as hath not been seen in Egypt (winter) since the 
foundation thereof," — since the beginning of that winter (Ex. 
ix, 18). 

Warning of the impending storm having been thus given, 
i. e., the people saw it then gathering, as we ourselves do at 
this day, the provident put themselves and their stock out of 
its reach, while the improvident chose to trust to providence 
for the preservation of themselves and theirs. The result 
showed the wisdom of the former and the folly of the latter, 
for it is to be observed that " God helps them that help them- 
selves," i. e., they who do up their work at the proper season, 
receive their reward in an abundant harvest. Or, as it has 
been more tritely observed, " men do not gather grapes of 
thorns, nor figs of thistles (Matt, vii, 16). That is, as grapes 
and figs are summer fruits, it cannot be expected they will 
grow in winter, which produces according to the corse of God, 
" thorns also and thistles" (Gen. iii, 18), though Christ seemed 
to think otherwise when he cursed the fig-tree because it didn't 
bear fruit in winter (Matt, xxi, 19), or at all events, out of 
season, "for the time of figs was not yet" (Mark xi, 13). 

The storm, however, was a very grievous one, " for the Lord 
(Atmosphere= Jupiter) sent down thunder and hail, and the 
fire (lightning) ran along the ground ;" the effect being such 
as we sometimes witness. All within its range was destroyed. 
" Only in the land of Goshen (Sun's house* = one of the sol- 
stices), which was out of the storm's range, was there no hail." 
(Ex. ix, 26). 

Pharaoh, thus overcome, and seemingly repentant, acknow- 
ledged that he had sinned, and that " the Lord is righteous," 
i. e., that the sun was at the spring equinox, as appears from 

* Bryant's Mythology, vol. i, p. 243. 



THE EXODUS. 165 

the text " the barley was in the ear, and the flax bulled." 
Pharaoh, therefore, was ready for a parley with Moses. Sum- 
mer and winter were still intermingled, and it was doubtful 
which was in the ascendant. However, Moses promised that 
when he left the city, "he would spread his hands unto the 
Lord (Zenith), which he actually did (see Zodiac), and the hail 
would cease; "that thou mayest know that the earth is the 
Lord's," i. e., that then the earth would be in the summer 
hemisphere. Moses (Aquarius), is in sextile aspect with Aries 
and was 60° from the equinox, and 30° from his zenith, which, 
astrologically speaking, is the Sun's house. In journeying 
thither, Moses' hands are always spread in that direction. 

The hail-storm which occurred in the land called Egypt, 
in January, 1843, as described by Lepsius in his letters from 
Egypt, makes it probable that this plague hail-storm may also 
have occurred there. But though probable, it is by no means 
certain. Egypt, especially lower Egypt, is placed by geogra- 
phers in a rainless district, where such storms must be exceed- 
ingly rare. These two, with the one related by Yolney, are 
all I know of on record. The two described b}^ Lepsius and 
Yolney, we must regard as having taken place in Egypt ; of 
the other we may not be so certain, since we derive our bib- 
lical revelations mainly, if not wmolly, from India. See Bun- 
serfs Egypt, vol. i, p. 458, where he tells us: "The cradle of 
the mythology and language of the Egyptians is Asia." 

8. The Plague of the Locusts. 

Although commentators affect to explain this plague by 
supposing the common locusts of the East (a species of grass- 
hopper) were blown into Egypt from Arabia across the Red 
Sea, because it is said (Ex. x, 13) the Lord brought an East 
wind upon the land (as he always does after God, or Aries, 
sets at the autumnal equinox), I am inclined to think an 
entirely different thing is meant than the one commonly sup- 
posed. Indeed, there seems to be a difference of opinion, as 
well there may be, among the learned as to their real nature. 
" Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after 



166 THE SCIEHCE OF THE BIBLE. 

them shall be such " (Ex. x, 14), i. e., during that winter. 
They were not, then, the common locust of the country. The 
interpretation of this plague must, therefore, be looked for in 
some other direction. By the " East wind," I understand the 
Monsoon, which blows from the proper quarter, "from about 
the middle of October," when Scorpio rises, " to the middle of 
March," soon after which Scorpio sets. The wind then changes 
and blows from the opposite point for the same length of time. 
The interval between the rising and setting of Scorpio is 
winter, when, according to the accounts, the locusts (the stars 
of Scorpio) stripped the earth of every green thing ; entering 
at the same time, the houses of Pharaoh, and the houses of his 
servants, and the houses of the Egyptians — the winter months. 
Thus it w r as, as I conceive, that the locusts (the cold weather) 
were blown in upon the land of Egypt, and afterward blown 
out from thence ; and thus, too, are we furnished with a beauti- 
ful exposition of this legend. 

Theologians, having little or no regard for the sacred (secret) 
text, which is very common with them, have adopted the com- 
mon locust as the instrument of this hateful plague. They did 
not take into their account the time, nor did they need to. All 
they had to do was to find a name outside the Bible, no matter 
where, corresponding to the one within it, and they would be 
all right; they would be in no danger except from the prying 
eye of the infidel, and him they had already brought into dis- 
repute. They cared nothing for the season ; nothing for the 
text : " Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither 
after them shall be such." They forgot that this plague was 
brought upon Egypt (winter) by an East wind (the N.E. Mon- 
soon) ; that it was taken away by a " mighty strong West 
wind" (Ex. x, 19) — the S. W. Monsoon; that the interval 
between these winds, during which the locusts were upon the 
land was exactly five months, which corresponds to the five win- 
ter months, when there were no locusts except in the egg ; they 
forgot that the Israelites got out of Egypt in the month Abib 
= March, the first month of the year, when it was too early for 
locusts to appear, according to the following, which is copied 
from Bryant's Plagues of Egypt, p. 141 : " They (the locusts) 



THE EXOHUS. 167 

generate in October ; and with their tails make a hole in the 
ground ; and having laid three hundred eggs in it, and covered 
them with their feet, die ; for they never live above six months 
and a half. And though the rains should come they would not 
destroy the eggs; nor does the frost, though never so sharp, 
hurt them. But they continue to the spring, which is about 
mid- April ; when, the Sun warming the earth, they are 
hatched, and leap about ; being six weeks old before they can 
fly." Other accounts accord with the above. But Dr. Smith, 
in his Bib. Die, leaves us in the dark on this important point. 
Since writing the above, I have been able to consult the 
recent able work of Angelo de Gubernatis on Zoological Myth- 
ology, wherein I find (vol. ii, p. 48) that the Sun and Moon 
were sometimes personified as locusts or scorpions. Moreover, 
commentators are not agreed as to the meaning of the several 
words translated locusts. Some of these words may be and 
are translated "frost" (Ps. lxxviii, 47), which will strip the 
leaves from the trees even more effectually than the locusts. 
Hence the Sun in Scorpio may be conceived of as a vast flight 
of locusts, which, blown in by the N.E. Monsoon, for this wind 
begins when the Sun enters Scorpio, overspreads the earth, and 
sweeps off* every green thing (Ex. x, 15). Note the language, 
" they left not any green thing." They did not denude the 
land like the insect locust, but left vegetation in a dried state, 
i. e., the frost killed it. In due time, the frosty season being 
over, Moses (Aquarius) passed the equinoctial line into the 
upper hemisphere, and so went out from Pharaoh. Following 
on, Aries soon came in conjunction with the Sun, and thus 
brought with him the " mighty strong west wind " (the S.W. 
Monsoon) which swept the locusts (frosts) away and summer 
came. 

9. The Plague or Darkness. 

The darkness here spoken of must not be confounded with 
physical darkness, or that occasioned by the absence of light. 
This darkness was certainly different, for it was a darkness 
that could he felt, and was confined to Egypt = Winter. Ref- 
erence was had to the cold and other inconveniences incident 



168 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

to the winter season. Hence it was a darkness that could be 
felt — that all have experienced. The word darkness is often 
used metaphorically, as in the dark days — unfortunate days of 
one's life ; the dark days of one's country, such as those of war, 
famine, pestilence, or other misfortune ; and as in our present 
case — the dark days of winter, and dark enough, too, are they 
to the poor and needy. 

This Egyptian darkness lasted three days (months), and 
then passed away. These three months embraced the coldest 
part of the winter season, and the cold or darkness was felt 
by none but the Egyptians — the people of winter. Pharaoh, 
though somewhat mollified, was not wholly overcome. God 
(Aries) was still with him, below the equinoctial line ; and, of 
course, Pharaoh could hold out so long as God (El) teas with 
him ; but the time was soon to arrive when the two must be 
parted, and then Pharaoh must succumb. In this interview 
Pharaoh was so nearly overcome that he ordered Moses from 
his presence — " See my face no more," said he (Ex. x, 28). 

At this time Aquarius (Moses), the Sun having entered 
Pisces, rose before the Sun, i. e., heliacally, so that Moses 
could well answer — " Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy 
face again no more " (Ex. x, 29) ; for Pharaoh, or the Sun, that 
Proteus of the Zodiac, had thrown a vail over Moses' face and 
blinded him, i. e., the constellation was effaced, or hidden from 
view, by the overpowering rays of the Sun. 

10. The Slaying of Egypt's First-born. 

In his tenth and last plague, the Lord resorted to extreme 
measures to compass his purpose, and succeeded. Having 
spoiled the Egyptians (Ex. xii, 36), i. e., having gathered up the 
fragments winter had left (the bones of Joseph), which Moses 
took with him (Ex. xiii, 19), Moses went out from Pharaoh in 
" great anger " (Ex. xi, 8). And no wonder ! Pharaoh (the 
Sun) had got up such a fuss among the four winds, and put 
them in such dreadful conflict, that it was, for a time, doubtful 
on which side victory would finally perch — winter or sum- 
mer. Moses, however, nothing daunted, manfully pushed for- 



THE EXODUS. 169 

ward to the side of summer, and put forth his — " Thus saith 
the Lord,'' about midnight, I will go out from Egypt, " and all 
the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die " (Ex. xi, 5). 

Proclamation having thus been made, precautions were 
next taken to prevent indiscriminate slaughter, for the Lord 
was not, like Pius IX, infallible. To avoid mistakes, it was 
ordered that " the two side posts," and " the upper door posts " 
(Ex. xii, 7) be " struck with the blood of a lamb " (Aries), slain 
for that purpose, and n * that none shall go out at the door of 
his house until the morning " (Ex. xii, 22). 

Thus, all having been arranged, the Lord proceeded with 
his bloody purpose ; and this was its modus operandi — the 
constellation Aries (God) rose in conjunction with the Sun 
(Lord) at the spring equinox, while Libra, a southern constella- 
tion, and the first-born of Egypt, because it is the first of the 
southern constellations to rise, set in the w T est.* Thus it was 
that the first-born of Egypt was slain ; and this slaying of 
Egypt's first-born takes place every spring soon after the equi- 
nox, and everybody is glad of it. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that " the door " was the 
east where the Sun rises, as this is the door (gate) through 
which that luminary must pass before he can ascend into 
heaven, or the summer hemisphere. The blood " struck upon 
the two side posts and the upper door post," was the reddish 
tinge exhibited by the Aurora at sunrise ; and this was the 
blood of the lamb (Aries) slain from the foundation of the 
world (beginning of the year) ; it was also the blood of Jesus 
Christ, the Lamb of God (Aries), the Savior (Sun) of the 
world (year). 

* Les Astres, qui sont au levant, annoncent la vie, et an couchant. la raort, dit Firmi- 
cii/s. (Dupuis' 1 Oriffine des Cul'es, torn, iii, pt. ii, p. 222). 

That is, " The stars at their rising announce life, and at their setting, death, Firmicius 
saye." 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE SANCTIFYING OF ISRAEL'S FIRST-BORN. 

AS Libra, the first-born of the Egyptians (southern constel- 
-XJL lations), went down in the west, i. e., was slain, Aries, 
the Ram, came up in the east, at the spring equinox. This 
was the first-horn of the Hebrews. " Thou shalt set apart 
unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix " (Ex. xiii, 12), i. e., 
all that cometh forth from the " belly of Hell," or winter, 
thou shalt cause to pass over to the Sun of summer. And so 
Aries, the first-born of the northern constellations which 
crosses the equinoctial line in spring, was sanctified, i. e., sun- 
nified, because thenceforth the Sun would shine upon them 
and the earth during the next six months, when the crops 
would be produced. 

The people, overjoyed at the return of spring, instituted a 
great feast — the feast of the pass-over — in memory of this 
most important and happy event, which was to be continued 
seven days, -the last of which being especially consecrated to 
the Lord (Ex. xiii, 6) because the nearest to summer. During 
all these seven days " unleavened bread," and no other, was 
to be eaten, i. e., bread made from the last year's crop, for that 
of the present year was not yet ripe. This feast was ordered 
to be held annually, and it has been so held by all peoples 
from time immemorial. None were permitted to partake of 
the passover unless circumcised, i. e., until they had reached 
the spring equinox, as a brook cannot be crossed until it is 
come up to. 

At the wheat -harvest festival, which soon followed, 
" leavened bread," i. e., bread made from the new crop, was 
used. 

Months after the above was penned, on looking into Bonn's 



THE SANCTIFYING OF ISRAEL'S FIRST-BORN. 171 

Philo Judseus, vol. iii, pp. 285-6, I find the same reasons there 
assigned for the use of the two kinds of bread, at these festi- 
vals, that I have given. 

Thus were the Israelites fairly out of Egypt (winter), not 
the country called Egypt in the northeast of Africa, for the 
" children of Israel " were never, as a body, there. Dr. 
Inman, and I with him, "defy scholars to prove that the 
Israelites were ever, as a body, in Egypt." He also asserts, 
and I prove, that "Adam, Abraham, David, Moses, Solomon 
and the prophets are imaginary beings ; " and that " the whole 
history of the Old Testament is untrue, with the exception 
(and this exception was unnecessary) of a few parts which tell 
of unimportant events." {Ancient Faiths and % Modem, p. 
469.) 

Journey of the Israelites. 

Let us next turn our attention for a few moments to the 
journey of the children of Israel up out of Egypt. The 
Lord ordered Moses (Aquarius) to cause them to turn and 
encamp before Pi-hahiroth ("the place where sedge grows" — 
the place where Moses' mother abandoned him, near the spring 
equinox), between Migdol (tower = autumn) and the sea (the 
eastern horizon), over against, i. e., on this side Baal Zephon 
(Lord-of-the-Korth = the summer solstice). Thus their first 
encampment was at or near the spring equinox. 

Pharaoh (the Sun), being informed of their flight, on recon- 
noitering, concluded, as the Lord had predicted, "that they 
are entangled in the land ; the wilderness hath shut them in " 
(Ex. xiv, 3). Soon, however, he, "with his six hundred 
chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt," was in hot pursuit ; 
but the children of Israel, pressing forward, aided by a strong 
east (west ?) wind (the monsoon), ; ' went out with a high hand" 
(Ex. xiv, 8). When Aquarius (Moses) rises, his right hand 
appears first above the horizon, and so the leader of the Israel- 
ites comes up out of Egypt, winter, night, or darkness, " with 
a high hand." " The children of Israel went up harnessed 
(i. e., by fives, as stated in the Hebrew text) out of the land 
of Egypt" (Ex. xiii, 18). That is, the months were divided 



172 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

each into parts consisting of ten, or of five days each, styled 
dedans and semi-decans, of which last seventy-two (72) made 
a year.* " They took their journey from Succoth "= Tents. 
If w T e supply emek= valley, with Gesenius, we shall have 
valley of tents, i. e., the winter months, as opposed to succoth- 
bamoth, or high-te?its= the summer months. " They encamped 
at Etham at the end of the wilderness "= the end of winter, 
and also of the year. Midhar is the word here translated 
''wilderness." Its root is dabar, to speak. It is in form a 
participle, and means speaking, and probably alludes to the 
intercalary or sjpoken-in days. 

The children of Israel were now at the spring equinox — at 
the end of the year. Up to this time, the Lord w r ent before 
them by day in a pillar of cloud (the days are cloudy during 
the rainy season) and by night in a pillar of fire=the stars 
^'toward evening during the rainy season, the clouds dis- 
appear, the Sun sets in a clear sky, and the nights are serene 
and fine ") f " that they might go by day and night " (Ex. xiii r 
21). But now, at the end of winter, the rainy season being 
over, the Angel of the Gods (the spring equinox) removed and 
went behind them, and came between the Egyptians and the 
camp of Israel ; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but 
it gave light by night to these (Ex. xiv, 20). Thus were the 
two parties, winter and summer, situated ; the one would not 
recede, the other could not advance. A miracle, of course, 
must be wrought to save the chosen of the Gods. So the Lord 
said to Moses — " lift up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand 
over the sea and divide it " (Ex. xiv, 16). Now, reader, look 
upon the Zodiac, which accompanies this book, turning it until 
Aquarius rises heliacally or just before the Sun, and you will 
see Moses with his uplifted rod and outstretched hand, in the 
very act of dividing the Red Sea (the Aurora of the morning — 
of Spring). The waters (the rainy season) thus divided, the 
children of Israel pass over or through the sea dry-shod, while 
the Egyptians, pursuing, were "shook off" (see marginal 



* The high-priest being added, made 73. and 73x5=365=the number of days in a year. 
+ " At sunset, the clouds disappear, the rain ceases, and not a drop falls during the 
night." Warren's Physic. Geog.. p. 50. Other authorities might be adduced. 



THE SANCTIFYING OF ISRAEL'S FIRST-BORN. 173 

reading) into the waters, i. e., winter ended and summer 
began. 

Then sang Moses and Miriam (Virgo), his sister, and the 
Israelites; "The Lord (Sun in Cancer) hath triumphed glo- 
riously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." 
(Ex. xv, 21), i. e., Sagittarius had just set in the West. 

From this place of singings the tropic of Cancer, Moses 
led his people " out into the wilderness of Shur," wall or 
boundary, i. e., Aquarius came to his meridian in October. 

After this, having gone three days in the wilderness, and 
finding no water, they at length came to Marah (bitterness^ 
the time between the beginning of the rainy season and the 
winter solstice). Here they found water (the rainy season), 
but it was so bitter they couldn't drink it (the weather being- 
wet and disagreeable). But the Lord (summer solstice) shewed 
Moses a tree (the winter solstice), which, thrown into the water, 
would make it sweet ; i. e., having passed the winter solstice, 
the days would begin to lengthen. To this tree (Elim, palm- 
trees — See Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 42) they soon came and found 
twelve wells of water and seventy palm-trees. The twelve 
wells=the twelve months, and the seventy palm-trees = the 
number of weeks of five days each in the year of 360 days.* 

Note right here that Elim is the plural of El=& ram. 
In this place it denotes Aries on his meridian about the winter 
solstice. It is made to signify almost anything strong ; and 
is translated " an oak" or " oaks" a " terebinth tree" a "mighty 
tree" etc. In Isaiah i, 29, it is translated " oaks ; " in Isaiah 
lvii, 5, "idols;" in Isaiah lxi, 3, "trees." Thus the English 
reader of the Bible may see how nicely he is cheated in King 
James' version of the sacred books. 

Note again : Elim is not Elohim ; the first is simply rams, 
and belongs on the winter side of the sphere. The last is sun- 
rams, and answers to the opposite or summer side. This though 
a general rule, is not without its exceptions; thus El-Shaddai, 
or the breasted-ram, and Elim-zedek, or righteous-rams, are 
the same with Elohim. In Job xlii, 8, Elim is translated 
" rams." 

* The seventy, like the Greek Septtiagint, means seventy-two. 



174 the science oe the bible. 

The Forty-Years 1 Wandering of the Israelites.* 

These consist, as we shall see, of incidents and observa- 
tions which may be noted by any one during the year, or a 
series of years. 

Departing from Elim (winter solstice), the congregation 
(the seven summer months) of Israel came to the wilderness 
of Sin (mud = the muddy season of spring), which is between 
Elim and Sinai (mount of Sin, or of the Moon = summer sol- 
stice), on the 15th day of the second month, after leaving 
Egypt, or the winter hemisphere (Ex. xvi, 1). 

Here their stock of provisions failed them, as often happens 
to the people of the present day ; and the children of Israel 
murmured against Moses and Aaron, because they could not, 
as during the winter, " sit by the flesh-posts of Egypt," and 
" eat bread to the full " (Ex. xvi, 3). But the Lord (the Sun) 
who suffers not a sparrow to fall to the ground unnoticed, and 
who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, provided for them. 
Accordingly, quails were sent. These are a species of migra- 
tory bird, which still come into that country at this season of 
the year. To them, of course, the people helped themselves 
for meat. They also found " a small round thing on the 
ground" (a kind of gum still produced from certain trees, and 
still used by the Arabs for food. According to Burckhardt, 
" they gather it in the morning, boil it, strain it, and put it in 
leathern bottles; and in this way it can be kept several years 
uninjured " (Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. Manna) ; which looked 
strange to them, and they asked — manna f = what is this f 
Thus, this substance, whatever it was, came to be called 
manna. Indeed, the whole narrative indicates plainly, that 
the people of that day, like the savage and barbarous races of 
to-day, picked up their subsistence, at this season, wherever 
they could nod it. 

* " Of the forty years, which the Israelites are said to have dwelt in the desert, not 
more than two are covered by the events of the narrative. The remainder are wrapped in 
dense obscurity. There is, however, a significant fact which deserves mention in this 
connection. The death of Aaron marks, as it were, the close of Israel's journey. Now, 
while in Num. xxxiii, the death of the high priest is described as occurring in the fortieth 
year, in Deut. x, it is actually referred to the second year of the Exodus."— Prof. Felix, 
Adler in No. 53 of the Popular Science Monthly, p. 593. 



THE SANCTIFYING OF ISRAEL'S FIRST-BORN. 175 

From the wilderness of Sin, having passed several stations, 
as Dophkah (cattle-driving), and Alnsh (turmoil), "the Israel- 
ites came to Rephidim (place of refreshment = harvest), where 
they pitched their tents ; and there was no water for the people 
to drink " (Ex. xvii, 1). So " Moses cried unto the Lord," i. e., 
came to his zenith, and, the Lord commanding him, he struck 
the rock in Horeb, right where the Lord stood, and water 
flowed from it and the people drank ; i. e., Aquarius then rose 
about midnight, came to his zenith about sunrise, and set at 
noon. It was thus Moses brought water from the rock in 
Horeb (the dry season). Here note that Moses struck the rock 
but once. In JSTum. xx, 11, when in the wilderness of Sin 
(low-land = winter hemisphere), he smote the rock twice, i. e., 
a second time ; for so the word paamaim (dual in form) may 
be properly translated. The first referred to the latter rain of 
spring; the second, to the former rain of autumn, beginning 
in October, when Aquarius comes to his meridian.* This 
place (the zenith) was called Massah (temptation) and Meribah 
(chiding). Here we find Moses and the Lord together (Ex. 
xvii, 6) ; the first the children of Israel chided, and the last, 
they tempted, saying — " is the Lord among us or not?" (Ex. 
xvii, 7). 

For these two strikings of the rock by Moses to procure 
water for the people, we have an exact parallel in the two 
fountains, one on each side of Mount Helicon (the summer sol- 
stice), Aganippe (much-horse) and Hippocrene (horse-fountain). 
These two fountains were formed precisely after the same man- 
ner ; namely, by the Horse Pegasus, which, first coming to his 
zenith and afterward to his meridian with Aquarius, strikes 
the ground with his foot, and thus produces the two fountains 
named above. (See Anthonys Class. Diet., Art. Pegasus; also 
Celestial Globe, Constellation Pegasus.) 

* " Moses having, by the observation of the movements of a troop of asses (the two 
8tar6 of Cancer), found out the spring that saved the congregation from perishing in the 
wilderness." (The Gnostics, by C. W. King, p. 91.) 



CHAPTER XTI. 

ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 
Defeat of the Amalekites. 

AT Rephidim (harvest) the Jews encountered Amalek 
- (amdl=laboTj and lakah—to take away, i. e., laziness) an 
enemy ever formidable to the Jews (praised ones). The Jews 
too, let us remember, were " devout men out of every nation 
under heaven " (Acts ii, 5). They were never a nation, but 
were always " scattered in Israel " (Gen. xlix, 7). They never 
did like work, never would work except when compelled, or 
when Moses held up his hands, and this was but a small part 
of the time, for "Moses' hands were heavy" (Ex. xvii, 12). 
On this one occasion, when "Aaron and Hur (the two solsti- 
tial points) stayed up his hands," they did work " until the 
going down of the sun," i. e., until noon, when "the going 
down of the sun" begins. During this time Joshua (savior= 
labor) discomfited Amalek (laziness) with the edge of the 
sword,** i. e., the grain was cut with the edge of the sword, as 
was the custom (see Judah Paddock *s Narrative, etc.) This 
half day's labor of the nabobs so astonished the Lord that he 
directed Moses to write it in a book " for a memorial " (Ex. 
xvii, 14). Indeed, but for this care on the part of the Lord, 
we should be wholly in the dark as to whether or not his 
chosen ever voluntarily or involuntarily worked at all. At any 
rate, the Lord (summer sun) decreed that there should be war 
with Amalek (laziness) from "generation to generation," i. e., 
as long as there are Jews, Aristocrats, or Nabobs, as the Hindus 
call them (Ex. xvii, 16). The reader will notice that this bat- 

* The Heb. chereb, here translated sword, is also rendered knife (Josh, v, 2); razor 
(Ezek. v, 1); graver, or chisel (Ex. xx, 25); ax, or hatchet (Ezek. xxvi, 9). In this place, 
but for the battle, it would doubtless have been translated sickle. 



ISRAEL'S WAKDERLNGS. 177 

tie occurred in harvest-time, when the sun was in Taurus. 
Aquarius (see Zodiac) would then be " on the top of the hill " 
(Ex. xvii, 10), in his zenith, at sunrise. This would indicate 
that the work of harvest was done in the cool of the day ; for, 
passing his zenith, or, " the top of the hill," Moses' hand begins 
to grow heavy and falls down in spite of Aaron and Hnr. 

Agag (the summer sun) was king of the Amalekites. He 
was captured by Saul (the winter sun), who spared him (1 
Sam. xv, 9), although he knew it was the will of the Lord 
(summer) that he should be extirpated (Ex. xvii, 14; Dent. 
xxv, 17). However, Samuel afterward sent for, and having 
got him, " hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal" 
(the circle or year), i. e., he divided the year into its several 
parts (1 Sam. xv, 33). In the time of Hezekiah, it is sup- 
posed, " the rest of the Amalekites, that were escaped," were 
extirpated (1 Chron. iv, 43). I shouldn't wonder, however, if, 
according to the Lord's prediction, numbers of them still turn 
up every year (Ex. xvii, 16). 

In chap, xviii, we find Jethro (redundancy = September), or, 
Reuel (friend of God=Earth and Aries in conjunction), with 
Moses' wife (Virgo), and his two sons (Gershom = winter, and 
Eliezer=summer) " encamped at the mount of the Gods " (Ex. 
xviii, 5), i. e., in the East, the time being autumn. " Moses 
went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance to him, 
i. e., went below the equator (see Zodiac). Moses, having told 
his father-in-law of the Lord's goodness (of the crops), Jethro 
rejoiced ; for it was the ingathering (Ex. xviii, 9). 

Jethro, observing that Moses always sat alone to judge the 
people, said unto him : " The thing that thou doest is not 
good " (Ex. xviii, 17). " Be thou," said he, " for the people 
God-ward (wul ha Elohim—'m front of the Gods, — see Zodiac), 
that thou mayest bring the causes unto the Gods " (Ex. xviii, 
19), i. e., shoulder part of the work on the Gods — good coun- 
sel ! Besides Jethro advised the appointment of rulers over 
thousands, over hundreds, etc. Moses at once adopted his 
father-in-law's' advice. The parties then separated, when 
Moses went into his own land = the winter solstice in Egypt 
(winter). 

12 



178 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" In the third month " after the children of Israel had left 
Egypt, counting from the winter solstice, the Israelites, going 
up from Rephidim, came unto the wilderness of Sinai, where 
they camped, not in, but " before the mount " (Ex. xix, 2). 
Thither the Lord bore Moses on Eagles' wings (constellation 
Aquila, which is just ahead, but a little north of Aquarius) and 
brought him to himself, the Lord (Ex. xix, 4). Having washed 
their clothes (latter rain) to be ready against the third day 
(month), the people left their wives (v. 15), and "stood at the 
nether part of the mount " (v. 17). Thus the situation of the 
heavens appears to be this : Aquarius is at his zenith, where 
he was ordered to be, " in the morning " (Ex. xxxiv, 2). The 
Sun was, of course, in Taurus. Here, then, in Mount Sinai = 
summer solstice, whence the law was ever promulgated, Moses 
and the Lord conferred together and produced the famous ten 
(twelve) commandments — all drawn from the twelve zodiacal 
constellations, and the phenomena of the year. This was but 
an imitation of the surrounding nations, who also had their 
" twelve tables of the law." 

Aaron's Molten Calf. 

Thus, Aquarius in his zenith and the Sun in Taurus, Aaron 
(Mountaineer, because at the mount of God) formed his " molt- 
en calf." " He fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had 
made it a molten calf" (Ex. xxxii, 4). That is, having con- 
ceived the idea, the myth-maker traced the outline of the calf 
(Taurus) out of the mixed (the word rendered " molten " is 
better translated mixed), or commingled stars, and thus 
brought them within the proper form. The Lord, having dis- 
covered Aaron's calf, said unto Moses : " Go ; get thee down," 
and see to this " stiffnecked people." So Moses " turned and 
went down from the mount (he didn't come down on the side 
by which he went up, but he went down on the opposite side), 
and the tables of the testimony were in his hand " (Ex. xxxii, 
15). As soon as he came nigh unto the camp (the western 
horizon, or the place of his setting), he saw the calf and his 
dancing (Taurus was then "dancing" in the zenith), and 



ISRAELS WANDERINGS. 179 

Moses' anger waxed hot (literally, in the original, Moses' nose 
became red ; Aquarius sets head first), and he cast the two 
tables (the two halves of the year) out of his hand, and brake 
them beneath the mount " (Ex. xxxii, 19). Yes ; " he brake 
them beneath the mount," not at its foot, but beneath, under 
the mount, i. e., below the equator at the winter solstice, where 
the year ended, as he still does every year. At the same time 
Moses (Aquarius) passing his meridian, the Sun being in 
Scorpio, " took the calf (Taurus setting), which they, (Moses 
and Aaron) had made, and burned it in the fire (western twi- 
light), and ground it to powder (setting, Taurus became invisi- 
ble), and strewed it upon the water (the former rain), and the 
children of Israel (summer constellations) drink of it " (Ex. xxxii, 
20). That is, when Taurus set, the Sun rose in Scorpio, and 
the rainy season, or winter, began, to be followed by the dry 
season which drank up the water. 

Thus, the reader will notice that Sinai (literally moon-heap, 
in allusion, probably, to the fourth day of the creation — see 
Creation) has never before been clearly identified, or correctly 
located. The difficulty of finding and locating this mythical 
mount, by the theological plan is simply insurmountable ; by 
the scientific process, the task is readily accomplished, as above. 
Aquarius and Taurus are always in quartile aspect. Horeb 
(literally dry) is the dry season, or as the learned theologian, 
Dr. ¥m. Smith, suggests, " a vast green plain of which Sinai 
is clearly a summit distinctly marked " {Bib. Diet., Art. Horeb). 
Truly, the vagaries of theology are often more amusing than 
instructive. 

The Two Tables Renewed. 

The manner in which the two tables of the law were 
renewed is narrated in Ex. xxxiv. It is there said Moses, 
having first " hewed two tables of stone (the two halves of the 
year) like the first," went unto Mount Sinai (the zenith) early 
in the morning, as before, the Sun being in Taurus, of course. 
He remained there " forty days and forty nights " — the season 
of Lent, which happened just then (v. 28). Departing thence, 
" Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth 



180 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

(Aquarius sets head-first) and worshiped." The original, more 
literally translated, reads, " Moses hasted, bowed his head to the 
earth, and subsided" i. e., set and went under — left the upper 
for the lower hemisphere. 

Moses, having thus gone below the horizon, down into 
Egypt, Hell, or winter, prayed lustily (v. 9), and said : " Par- 
don our iniquity and our sin (our divergence from the equator, 
or path of righteousness), and take us for thine inheritance ; " 
i. e., take us up out of the winter hemisphere, or Hell, into 
the summer hemisphere, or heaven = the heaved-up place. 
The Lord granted Moses' prayer, and he made a covenant, i. e., 
Aquarius came in conjunction with the Sun. In the mean- 
while the Lord forbade his inclining to any other Grod= fil 
(which, by the way, he could not do, were he ever so willing, 
since he could not get below God = El), for the Lord, whose 
name is jealous (kanna=red), is a jealous God, i. e., a red- 
_Ram= Aries in winter, when he may be seen among the stars 
during the night (v. 14). 

The Lord also forbade him making " molten gods," which 
he could not do, — only the Sun in Aries can make a " molten 
god " (Ex. xxxiv, 17). The Sun in Taurus makes a " molten 
calf," and the Sun in Aquarius, by the rule, would make a 
" molten man." 

Again : " All that openeth the matrix (rises in the East) 
is mine ;".... " whether ox, or sheep, that is male " (v. 19), 
i. e., whether Aries or Taurus. " But the firstling of an ass 
(Cancer) thou shalt redeem with a hid (see marginal reading). 
All the constellations, as they emerge from the lower into the 
upper hemisphere, are redeemed, i. e., restored to favor, each 
by its opposite. The Ass (Cancer), it is particularly stated, 
must be redeemed by a kid (Capricorn) ; thus : As Cancer 
rises, Capricorn sets, and the Ass is redeemed — saved, while 
the poor Goat is lost! (Ex. xxxiv, 20). 

Moses, having received his instructions, written the ten 
(twelve) commandments {words, in the original) upon the two 
tables of stone (the two hemispheres), and fasted, his forty days 
(Lent) in the Mount, came down from Sinai, " with the two 
tables of testimony in Moses' hand." This time his face shone 



Israel's wanderings. 181 

while he (the Lord) talked with him. " But Moses wist not 
that the skin of his face shone " (v. 29). All Israel, however, 
saw it, and were afraid to come nigh him (v. 30). Now, the 
Sim in Taurus, the moon in her last quarter would appear in 
Aquarius (See your Almanac). This, doubtless, is what is 
here referred to.* The fact, too, that in the Latin Yulgate 
Bible we have cornuta erat fades sua, corresponding to the 
Hebrew keren, both signifying horned, favors this idea. Thus 
was Moses' face homed; hence painters and sculptors have 
often represented Moses as "horned" How beautiful, and 
yet how true ! 

Noah, who often represented Aquarius, or Moses, and was 
intimately related to the Bull (Taurus), was sometimes called 
" the horned Noah." (See Faber's Cabiri, vol. i, p. 210.) 

The reader will further note, that though, on this second 
coming down from the Mount (zenith), nothing is said about 
breaking the commandments, they were broken, nevertheless, 
as before, and are so broken by Moses still at the end of every 
year. 

The Tabernacle! and Temple. 

History can assign no date for the erection of the first 
temples; they are fairly pre-historic. Architectural remains 
pointing to a date very much prior to our Bible chronology, 
have been found on almost every part of the globe, but more 
particularly on the eastern continent ; those of Egypt and the 
countries connected with Bible history being the most noted. 

" From the most gloomy glens 
Of Greenland's sunless climes, 
To where the golden fields 
Of fertile England spread 
Their harvest to the day, 
Thou canst not find one spot 
Whereon no city stood. 1 ' — Shelley. 

*By the earth's double motion, daily and annual, the stars are made to assume two 
corresponding apparent motions. The one given above answers to the daily, which, on 
second thought, I suppose, was not meant by the unknown author; but the annual, rather. 
It makes no difference, however, for Moses' face was horned! 

+ Tabernacle or Temple means the same thing as the Zodiac. Tabernaculum istud 
Zodiaco circulo constitutum, qui ex duodenario constat. In English: " The Tabernacle, like 
the zodiac, is based upon the number twelve." (Hermes in Poemandero, quoted by Dupuis, 
Orirjine des Cultes, torn. in. p. 312 ) 



132 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

It would seem, from these remains, that in the ancient, and 
even in pre-historic times, it was customary, as it is at this 
day, to erect temples, or structures descriptive of the universe, 
or of the year. Some were, in form, square, having a door 
and three windows in each side, thus typifying the year. 
Others were circular, with as many doors and windows as 
there are days in the year ; whilst a third class, and by far the 
most numerous, were oblong in form, the length being east 
and west, with the door and steeple, or spire, fronting the east. 
To this third class belonged the Memnonium at Thebes or 
Diospolis (city of the Gods) in Egypt. This famous structure 
bore the same proportions as Solomon's Temple and the 
Tabernacle of Moses, being in length three times its breadth 
(Anthon's Class. Diet., Art. Memnonium) Within this tem- 
ple stood the statue of Osymandias (dans-vocem=voice-giving 
=Memnon), himself bearing this inscription : u I am Osy- 
mandyas, king of kings (the Sun). Whoever will dispute this 
title with me, let him surpass my works " (Bees' Cyclo., Art. 
Osymandias). In this temple, besides this statue of the Sun, 
there was " a vast circle of gold (the Sun's ecliptic), a cubit in 
thickness and 365 cubits in circumference " = the number of 
days in the year. (Maurice's Indian Antiq., vol. iii, p. 101.) 

At Balbec (city of the Sun) in Syria, was found the ruins 
of a temple dedicated to the Sun ; also at Palmyra, or Tadmor, 
in the wilderness. This latter, it has been supposed by some, 
but without probabilit}^ to have been built by Solomon. 

Thousands and tens of thousands of temples have been 
built ; thousands are being built, and dedicated, unwittingly, 
to be sure, to the SUN, the great LOED of LIGHT and 
LIFE ! Another fact : Those temples, the Jewish in particu- 
lar, were usually built in seven years (months), and destroyed 
by fire in the same month, and on the same day of the month 
— the 18th day of August, falling into the enemy's hands in 
the following month (September, the first of the winter 
months), is of itself significant. Winter is ever the enemy of 
summer (Jerusalem, in Bees' Cyclo.). But without further 
remark, let us enter upon our subject — the Tabernacle and 
Temple. 



Israel's wanderings. 183 

Moses (Aquarius) by direction of the Lord (Sun) having 
exercised the office of law-giver and leader to the children of 
Israel (summer zodiacal constellations) for a space of time, 
sufficient to establish his divine mission in the eyes of his sub- 
jects, by a series of striking miracles, thus collecting his mate- 
rial, is now prepared to inaugurate a regular system of divine 
(star) worship. To this end, the Lord ordered him to let the 
children of Israel make him a sanctuary out of the material 
he had collected (see Ex. xxv, 3-7, inclusive), that he might 
dwell among them, — the Sun dwells among the Stars. This 
Sanctuary or Tabernacle, with the instruments therewith con- 
nected, was made according to the pattern shown Moses in the 
Mount — Sinai = the summer solstice (Ex. xxv, 40). The orders 
for this purpose may be found in Exodus xxvi ; the work as 
carried out, in Exodus xxxvi, where, contrary to all manner of 
custom among the people of our day, the work of this singular 
structure was, according to the account, begun from above and 
continued downward, like all air-built castles. This may not, 
after all, appear so very singular, when we come to learn the 
nature of the structure, and of the material out of which it and 
its hangings, vails, curtains,' etc., w T ere made. 

This tabernacle was doubtless & facsimile, or true represen- 
tation of the universe, or year, as then known. Of this we 
are certified by Josephus : " If any do without prejudice and 
with judgment look upon these things — the Tabernacle, high- 
priests, ornaments, etc.," — says this accredited author, "he will 
find they are every one made in way of representation and 
imitation of the universe. The vails, too, which were com- 
posed of four things, declare the four elements ; for the fine 
linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows 
out of the earth ; the purple signified the sea, because that 
color is dyed by the blood of a sea shell-fish ; the blue is fit to 
signify the air ; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication 
of fire" {Antiq., B. iii, chap, iii, § 7). 

Dr. Smith (Bib. Diet., Art. Tabernacle), says: "The struc- 
ture of the Tabernacle was obviously determined by a complex 
and profound symbolism," and " that it is not probable that 
the elaborate symbolism of such a structure was understood by 



184 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the rude and sensual multitude that came out of Egypt. Yet 
it was not the less, was perhaps the more fitted on that account 
to be an instrument for the education of the people.'' Exactly, 
Doctor, for, by such means the more you teach the people, the 
less they know. 

Having thus obtained a glimpse at least, if not a clear idea 
of what the Tabernacle represented, let us next see what can 
be made out of the text in Exodus in relation to this wonder- 
ful wigwam. To do this, it will be proper at this stage of our 
inquiry, to make the acquaintance of the principal characters 
or personifications concerned in its erection. Of Moses and 
Aaron, and their sons, we are already informed. Besides these 
we now meet with Bezaleel, Aholiab, and their relatives. 
Bezaleel is literally : " The-Ram-is-in-the-shade, i. e., the Ram 
(Aries or God) coming to his meridian in December, is conse- 
quently on the side of the earth opposite the Sun, and, of 
course, in the shade, apparently, to us on the earth. The time 
was hence mid-winter, when the Sun (the Savior of the world) 
was born. Bezaleel was the son of Uri, i. e., of light, of sum- 
mer, because Aries is a summer constellation, and because 
summer is followed by winter. He was also the son of Hur, 
the Hole or Winter, or Darkness, as Apollo (the Sun) was 
the son of Leto= Darkness. Aholiab {Father-of-ihe-tent\ was 
the same as Ephraim, or Taurus, because the spring equinox 
was aforetime in Taurus ; hence, he was the first of the sum- 
mer constellations, and Faiher-of-the-tent, or of the congrega- 
tion. He was the son of Ahisamach, or of the Helping- 
brother, of the tribe of Dan, or Scorpio ; for each of the zodi- 
acal constellations had its helping-brother, or co-worker in its 
opposite. 

These (Bezaleel and Aholiab, i. e., Aries and Taurus, and 
the balance of the constellations), each keeping its allotted 
time with the Sun as he apparently moved over the ecliptic, 
erected the Tabernacle, which was simply a type of the uni- 
verse, one-turn, or the year. Their starting-point, be it remem- 
bered, was from the winter solstice^ to which they returned by 
a single revolution. 

Having thus discovered the nature of the Tabernacle, and 



Israel's waxlerixgs. 185 

made the acquaintance of its architects, we are now prepared 
to unriddle the mysteries of its construction. Beginning with 
its frame-work, we shall trace out its form, and end with its 
inclosure and division into apartments. 

In form, then, the Tabernacle was rectangular, being thirty 
cubits long by ten wide, and ten high ; or according to Dr. 
Smith (Bib. Diet.) 45 feet long, by 15 wide and 15 high — 
smaller than many a farm-house or barn. Josephus, however, 
gives the length as thirty cubits, but he makes the breadth and 
height each twelve cubits ; and adds : " this proportion of the 
measures of the Tabernacle proved to be an imitation of the 
system of the world " (Antiq., B. iii, chap, vi, sees. 3 and 4), 
and he is doubtless right. Thus the thirty cubits equal the 
number of days in a month. These multiplied by twelve give 
360, the number of days in the ancient year. The height 
being necessarily equal to the breadth, is not taken into the 
account. The " ten " of the Hebrew text may have reference 
to the year as containing but ten months after the old Roman 
arrangement. (See Art. Calendar, Anthonys Smithes Diet, of 
Greek and Horn. A?itiq.) 

This number of months was afterward increased, first to 
eleven, and then to twelve, the number given by Josephus. 

The Tabernacle or Zodiac extended in length from East to 
West, and in breadth from North to South. This squared 
with the notions, not only of the ancient Fathers of the 
Church, but of the people generally to a late date, concerning 
the shape and position of the earth, as the geographical terms 
longitude and latitude still testify. It was inclosed with hang- 
ings of " blue, purple, scarlet and fine-twined linen," i. e., of 
the four elements, as explained by Josephus before quoted. 

The question next to be settled is this: How did our 
forefathers get the idea that the earth and the heavens were in 
form rectangular, or, as it is expressed in holy-writ, "four 
square f " The horizon in all plain countries always appears 
circular ; how, then, obtain from the phenomena by which we 
are surrounded, the idea that the earth and the heavens are 
rectangular in form and thrice as long from east to west as 
from North to South? Probably thus : They observed, as 



186 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

we do, that at the summer solstice, the Sun rose far iu the 
northeast, and set as far in the northwest ; that at the winter 
solstice, it rose as far in the southeast and set correspondingly 
in the southwest. Drawing two lines parallel to the equator 
and to each other connecting these points and joining the ex- 
tremes on the east and west, or the beginning and ending of 
the year, they obtained the figure required. Now dividing the 
year of 360 days into three equal parts, we get 120 days, which 
is equal to the one third of thirty days, multiplied by 12=120. 
The length of the Tabernacle, therefore, seems to refer to the 
length of the year, and its breadth, to one of the three ancient 
seasons. 

But the Tabernacle proper seems to have embraced, as we 
have seen, the space between the two tropics, i. e., the torrid 
zone. This was called the Holy of Holies, or the most sunny 
place. In the Temple it was styled " the inner court." The 
balance of the visible heavens was included in the " court of 
the Tabernacle " (Ex. xxvii, 9). This surrounded the Taber- 
nacle, and was much more spacious, being 100 cubits long by 
50 wide. This " court " was adorned with hangings precisely 
like those of the Tabernacle, viz. : " blue and purple and scarlet 
and fine-twined linen," i. e., with the four elements. It was 
surrounded by sixty pillars, equal to the number of degrees in 
the radius by which, in turning around, a man sweeps the 
horizon. The position of the " court " with regard to the car- 
dinal points was the same with that of the Tabernacle. 

The porch before the Tabernacle faced the East, was 10 
cubits front by 5 deep, and rose in the form of our modern 
church spires, probably to the height of 90 feet. I am aware 
that these dimensions are not stated in Exodus. But Dr. 
Smith {Bib. Diet., Art. Temple), an excellent authority, tells 
us that " all the arrangements (of these two structures) were 
identical, and that the dimensions of every part of the Temple 
were exactly double those of the Tabernacle." Now, in Kings 
vi, 3, and in 2 Chron. iii, 4, we find the porch of the Temple 
was 20 cubits by 10 on the ground and in height 120 cubits ; 
hence the conclusion given above. 

As Moses was Egyptian born, and skilled in all Egyptian 



ISRAEL S WANDERINGS. 187 

lore, it is not improbable but, in the projection of the porch of 
the Tabernacle, he kept in view the lofty obelisk and spiral 
column, symbolic of the solar beam, which shot heavenward in 
every country on the globe in the form of the Sun's all-vivify- 
ing ray, in order to secretly perpetuate the old superstition 
with which he was already familiar. Indeed, our modern 
church spires bear unmistakable witness to the regular trans- 
mission of this ancient superstition down to our own time ; 
particularly those of the Catholics which are surmounted by 
crosses (right-angled), typical of the Sun in his northern sol- 
stice. This cannot be denied, but stands confessed: "I am 
afraid," says the learned and ingenuous Rev. Thomas Maurice, 
* ; I am afraid that even at this day, after so many ages have 
elapsed, the vestige of this first grand superstition, so general 
in the ancient eras of the world, is too apparent in the lofty 
spires and pinnacles with which the sacred edifices of Europe 
are decorated." (Ind. Antiq., vol. iii, p. 129.) 

We have seen above, that the arrangements of the Taber- 
nacle and Temple were precisely the same, except that the 
dimensions of the latter were twice those of the former. This 
being the case, we may expect to find the architects identical, 
though called by different names. Thus the builders of the 
Tabernacle were Bezaleel and Aholiab, whom we identified as 
the Aries and Taurus of the zodiac. 

Temple. 

Solomon and Hiram built the Temple of the Lord ; and 
afterward a palace for the former. This last was the same with 
the Tabernacle, as I shall presently show. 

Solomon is, literally, peaceful Sun. The name is derived 
from, or rather is a translation of, the Hebrew salem peace= 
the summer Sun. It is composed of three syllables, Sol—Lat. 
Sol = Sun ; om = t\\e unutterable Sanscrit o'm or ATTM=the Jah- 
veh of the Jews, and 07i=the Greek wv = the being. Solomon, 
then, meant the annual Sun ; and as the Temple of the Lord 
(Sun) was begun in the second month, he commenced his 
career in Taurus, and is thus identified as Aholiab. Hiram is 



188 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

from hur=2i dark hole="the black hole "= winter, and rum, 
to be high, i. e., Hiram is Aries on his meridian at the winter 
solstice. Hiram, also, was a man of Tyre=a rock, i. e., the 
rock, or meridian, whence Moses drew water for the people. 
Hiram means noble, splendid, shining, and hence, as Aries 
comes to his meridian in December, at the same time with 
Bezaleel, Hiram is Bezaleel. 

In 1 Kings vii, 4, we learn that Hiram was a widow's son of 
the tribe of Naphtali (Yirgo), and his father was a man of 
Tyre. His father, then, was still living, though his mother 
was a widow — a grass widow, perhaps. In 2 Chron. ii, 14, 
we are told Hiram was the son of a ivoman of the daughters of 
Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. The reader is left to 
reconcile these different statements for himself. 

" Solomon determined to build a house for the name of the 
Lord (Sun during summer), and a house for his kingdom " = 
the year (2 Chron. ii, 1, 12). Accordingly, Solomon began to 
build the Lord's house " in the second day of the second 
month (April), in the fourth year of his reign " (2 Chron. iii, 2), 
and finished it " in the month Bui (October), which is the 
eighth month. So he was seven years in building it " (1 Kings 
vi, 38). Here, if we reckon the years as months, all will har- 
monize, otherwise we will stumble upon insurmountable diffi- 
culty. For, if Solomon commenced to build the Lord's house 
" in the second day of the second month Zif (April), and 
finished it in the month Bui, which is the eighth month " (Oc- 
tober), he certainly did not work even or entire years. But if 
we call these years months, all difficulty will vanish. The 
second month, then, will be the fourth, counting from January, 
of Solomon's reign, because the Sun is born, i. e., begins his 
reign, from the winter solstice. This house of the Lord was 
built during, and corresponds with, the seven months of the 
Creation, as before treated of (See Creation). It also corre- 
sponds to the seven degrees of the Boyal Arch mason. But in 
the building of his own house, Solomon occupied thirteen- 
years (the thirteen lunar months), and these thirteen years 
(lunar months) began with Solomon's reign, and ended with 
the year. Solomon's house was the same as the Tabernacle, 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 189 

which, says Josephus, "was made in way of representation 
and imitation of the universe," or of the year. (Antiq., B. iii, 
cap. 7.) 

The astronomy of the Bible being that of the Ptolemaic 
system, the reader will naturally, of course, be led to look for 
epicycles, i. e., small circles so placed that their centers move in 
and about the circumference of a great circle ; and sure enough, 
here they are in 1 Kings vi, 5 : "And against the wall of the 
house he built chambers round about (i. e., circular chambers), 
against the walls of the house round about (i. e., of the circular 
house), both of the temple and the oracle," i. e., the holy of 
holies. We also find such described in Ezekiel xl, 16, and xli, 
16, but much more complex. The number of these epicycles 
varied according to the fancy of the author. Thus, when the 
number had risen to thirty-four, Aristotle added twenty-two 
more. This number not being adequate, additions were still 
made until the system became so cumbrous that it fell of its 
own weight, and gave place to the Copernican, which we call 
the true system.* 

The Coverings of the Temple. 

Having thus established what is not denied, the identity of 
the Tabernacle and Temple, I next proceed to describe the 
nature of the coverings, divisions, etc. The Tabernacle, we 
are told, " had four coverings or carpets thrown over one 
another." (Reed Cyclo., Art. Tabernacle.) 

The first was made of " fine-twined linen, and blue, and 
purple, and scarlet," i. e., of the four elements — earth, air, fire 
and water. (Joseph. Antiq., B. iii, c. 7, sec. 7.) This structure 
being a type of the universe, the earth is very properly brought 
in as forming a part. The second was of " goats' hair" The 

* Josephus tells us the number of '■'■small rooms round about the temple was thirty'" 
(B. viii. c. 3, sec. 2) 

When the above was written I had not seen the recent work of Prof. J. P. Clarke, on 
"The New Chemistry." From page ten I transcribe the following: " The courses of 
the planets have not changed since they were watched by the Chaldean astronomers three 
thousand years ago; but how differently have their motions been explained — first by 
Hipparchus and Ptolemy, then by Copernicus and Kepler, and lastly by Newton and 
Laplace — and however great our faith in the law of universal gravitation, it is difficult to 
believe that even this grand generalization is the final result of astronomical science.' 1 '' 



190 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

word hair in our English version is an interpolation. Nothing 
of the kind can be found in the original. Izzim, plural of ez,. 
from azaz = "fc> make strong;" and Gesenius tells us "the 
usual concomitants of might and power, are splendor, glory, 
etc. {Heb. Lex., p. 764). I, therefore, take it that this covering 
was sunshine, which emanates from the highest power known 
— the Sun. 

The following description of a Singalese Temple is in point 
here : " The roof of this brilliant pavilion is formed of moon- 
shine : the golden columns on which it rests, are beams of the 
Sun, and in number a thousand and thirty ; its walls are com- 
posed of woven ether, meteoric fires, and the condensed evapo- 
rations of aromatic shrubs and flowers." ( Upham's Hist, of 
Budhism, p. 57, folio, Lond. 1829). 

The third covering was of " rams' 1 shins dyed red." Dr. 
Smith {Bib. Diet.) says the Hebrew may be translated " skins 
of red rams," which is true. Here, then, is a dilemma. The 
ambiguity, however, may help us to an intelligible solution of 
these questions : What were these " red rami skins" and 
where may we find the red rams f Though most of us have 
heard of " rami skins dyed red," few, I take it, have ever 
thought of " red rams." Dr. Smith {loco citato) says the "red 
ram" is by Ham. Smith identified with the Aoudad sheep 
(Ovis Tragelaphus). This animal, as its specific name imports, 
is not properly a sheep; besides, though of the required color 
(reddish yellow) it is wild, and inhabits chiefly the lofty parts 
of the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa {Murrey's Encyc. of 
Geo., vol. iii, p. 7). It would, therefore, be difficult to conceive 
how the Israelites obtained their skins, unless they had laid in 
a store beforehand for their purpose. This, under their circum- 
stances, they could not possibly do ; and the Egyptian rams 
being all black, their skins could not be used. I fear, then, we 
shall be obliged to give up the pretty " red rams," and admit 
that the children of Israel stole the Egyptians' black rams' 
skins and dyed them red. This they could readily do, the pro- 
cess being extremely simple: Thus, when the great shep- 
herd of the sheep (Sun in Aries) rises in the east, the " fleecy 
clouds " (rams' skins) which shortly before were enveloped in 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 191 

the blackness of night, suddenly became luminous (dyed red). 
Soon, however, they lost their color, but at or near sunset, 
they again put on their glorious reddish-yellow tinge. After 
night, when the richest myths refer to the Sun shut from our 
view by the surrounding darkness, they return to their original 
dark hue. Such, then, was this -third covering of the Taber- 
nacle. (For the mythological sheep, see De Gubernatis, vol. i, 
ad finem.) 

The fourth, or uppermost covering of all, was made of 
" tachash" which has commonly been translated in connection 
with or, plural oroth, " badgers' skins." How in the name of 
common sense this word " tachash " can be tortured into bad- 
gers' skins, nobody but a theologian can tell, and not even he, 
as it appears ; for he has at last concluded that " it is quite im- 
possible to identify the animal denoted by the Hebrew word." 
The same authority {Smith's Bib. Diet.), however, informs us 
that " the ancient versions seem nearly all agreed that it (tac- 
hash) denotes not an animal, but a color, either black, or sky- 
blue." That's the talk, Dr. Smith — the uppermost cover- 
ing of the Tabernacle is the upper ether, which in the night is 
black, at other times sky-blue ! 

The Curtains of the Tabernacle. 

The curtains, or hangings, which adorned the inner taber- 
nacle, were of the same material as the outside covering. In 
the Hebrew text we have the words ohel and mishcam, 
which are indifferently translated Tabernacle. Of these words, 
Gesenius speaks thus : " As to the distinction in the Taber- 
nacle between ohel and mishcam, the former denoted the exte- 
rior covering, consisting of twelve curtains of goats' hair, which 
was placed over the dwelling (mishcam), i. e., the twelve inte- 
rior curtains, or hangings, which lay upon the frame-work. 
(See Ex. xxvi, 1-7; xxxvi, 8-14.") The reader will notice 
that the number " twelve " does not occur in the texts cited. 
The learned Professor thought the number ought to be twelve 
to correspond to the number of our calender months? 

In Exodus xxvi, 1, and xxxvi, 8, we find the number of cur- 



192 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

tains ten. These, no doubt, had reference to the number of 
months in the year, which at one time was ten (Ovid's Fasti, 
B. iii, 100). I shall be told this was the number of months in 
the old Roman year. I answer, true ; but Romulus and 
Moses were the same. .Note their parallel. Both were 
heaven-descended ; both were committed to the river ; both 
were rescued and wonderfully preserved ; both grew up and 
became famous law-givers ; and both, having performed their 
role, miraculously disappeared from the earth. Romulus was 
surnamed Quirinus, because of the litnus or rod in his hand. 
Quirinus was the same with Aquarius, who also, like Moses, 
bears in his hand a rod. (Brand's Pojp. Antiq., vol. i, p. 366.) 
The identification, then, of these three — Moses, Romulus and 
Aquarius — is complete, and defies successful contradiction. 
To these, others might be added, and more proof be adduced, 
but the above is deemed enough. Whoever wishes for more 
may consult E. B. Tyler's Prim. Cult., vol. i, pp. 281-2. 

Again : In Exodus xxvi, 7 and xxxvi, 14, the number of 
curtains named is eleven. This probably refers to a period 
somewhat later, when the Jewish year had gained an additional 
month ; for the ancient — not the most ancient — Jewish year 
consisted of eleven months. (Bees' Cyclo., Art. Year.) 

The Furniture — Ark. 

The tabernacle being erected and inclosed, the next step is 
to furnish it. Of the furniture, the first and most important 
article seems to have been the Ark. Concerning this symbol 
much has been written, but no clear idea as to its true signifi- 
cation or purpose has thus far been elicited. All the accounts 
with which I am acquainted are distinguished for their cloudi- 
ness. The following interpretation of this symbol will, I hope, 
convey to the mind of the reader a more definite and intelli- 
gible conception of it. 

The Ark (aron, from the Hebrew arah, to pluck off ; to 
make bare) was made of shittim-wood, a species of acacia, or 
thorn, the emblem of winter — of the five months October, 
November, December, January and February. In the myth 



Israel's wanderings. 193 

of the Creation, seven months only are taken into the account, 
as we have before seen, these live being referred to as dreary 
and desolate (Gen. i, 2). In the myth of the Flood, we have, 
in connection with the seven summer months, a detailed 
account of these live winter months, during which the whole 
animal world was preserved in the Ark of Noah until spring. 
As the tabernacle " was made in way of representation and 
imitation of the universe," or the year, and the phenomena 
thereof, I conceive this particular Ark was typical of the five 
winter months. An arc, as every reader knows, is a part of a 
circle. Besides this particular arc, this arc par excellence, 
others are named in the Bible, e. g., ark of bulrushes, ark of 
the covenant, ark of God, the portion of the Sun's ecliptic 
answering to the month March ; ark of the Lord, or ark of the 
congregation —the seven summer months ; ark of the testimony, 
etc. All these various arks are usually taken by the casual 
reader, and even by the learned, to be synonyms. 

But let us take the Bible, and see if we cannot trace out 
the proper places of these several arks (arcs) in the Sun's 
ecliptic. With the ark of Noah the reader is already ac- 
quainted. The other arks or arcs will be indicated as w T e 
proceed. In Numbers iii, 31, the wdiole charge of the service 
of the tabernacle was given to Elizaphan (hiddejvmna^-Bezaleel), 
chief of the house of the families of the Kohathites (assembly- 
men ^zodiacal constellations) and son of Uzziel (strong-ram = 
Aries in summer). That is, the point of beginning was, as 
with Bezaleel, at the winter solstice. Aaron (high-Sun^ sum- 
mer solstice) appointed Eleazar (helping-ram=Elizaphan= 
Bezaleel =Immanuel) priest (one 6f the cardinal points:= winter 
solstice). The Lord directed that the Kohathites might not 
die, but live when they approach the most holy things= sum- 
mer (Num. iv, 19). The services of Gershom (winter solstice 
= Immanuel) son of Moses (Aquarius) were enlisted under 
Ithamar ( Pal m-tree= summer) son of Aaron (Num. iv, 28). 

All thus in readiness, set out from Shittim (winter solstice) 
and move on until they come to the river Jordan (spring equi- 
nox). Here they take up " the ark of the covenant" (the part 
of the ecliptic near the equinox), and the priests make a stand, 
13 



194 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

while Joshua informs them how they may know " the living 
God" is among them (Josh, iii, 10) — Aries had just entered 
the summer hemisphere, and was hence " the living God " — 
was no longer dead, as he had been during the winter. The 
priests, having brought the soles of their feet " to rest in the 
waters of the Jordan," kept their stand " until all was fin- 
ished" (Josh, iv, 10) — until Joshua had set up the twelve 
stones in the midst of the Jordan (the Sun's ecliptic), in the 
very foot-prints left by the priests that " bare the ark of the 
covenant, and there they are unto this day" (Josh. iv. 9). 
These twelve priests, then, denoted the twelve months of the 
year. However, the people passed over, and "the ark of the 
Lord," i. e., the seven summer months, followed them (Josh. 

iv, 11). 

The Ark of God. 

" The Ark of God," it would seem, answered to the part 
of the ecliptic covered by the constellation Aries. The Philis- 
tines {they who roll around), having pitched in Aphek (a fort- 
ress) "over against" the children of Israel, who were at Eben- 
ezer (stone-of-help = autumnal equinox, and stone-of-help, 
because opposite the stone Bethel, or the spring equinox), took 
the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod, 
the last of the winter months, so called from shadad, to spoil, 
because it was right here the Hebrews spoiled the Egyptians. 
Here the Philistines brought the ark of God into the house of 
Dagon (Pisces, — see Types of Mankind, p. 477), " but Dagon 
fell upon his face to the earth," i. e., set (1 Sam. v, 3). Here 
we have an allusion to the precession of the equinoxes, or 
rather, to their recession ; for we find by reference to the mar- 
ginal chronology of the Bible, that Pisces had gone forward 
rather more than half a sign (1,140 years; 2,160 being equal 
to a whole sign). Poor Dagon ! his " head and both the palms 
of his hands were cut off upon the threshold" or what was 
formerly the dividing line between Pisces and Aries ; only the 
stump of Dagon was left" (1 Sam. v, 4). 

In 1 Sam. iv, 5, 6, we are told that when the ark of the 
covenant of the Lord, which is the same as the ark of God, 



Israel's wanderings. 195 

came into the camp of the Hebrews, all Israel set up a shout 
that frightened the Philistines, and no wonder, for their doom 
was sealed; the Gods (Elohim) were again on the side of the 
Hebrews, or in the summer hemisphere. The Philistines, 
however, having been cautioned not to send the "ark of God" 
empty away (the passover feast was at hand), asked : " What 
shall be the trespass (passover) offering?" " Ye shall make 
images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar 
the land" was the answer (1 Sam. vi, 5). Accordingly five 
golden emerods (golden bullets), and five golden mice, " accord- 
ing to the number of the Lords (five) of the Philistines " 
were " returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord = the 
summer Sun" (1 Sam. vi, 17). The former typified the small 
(weak) suns during the five winter months, just passed away ; 
while the latter alluded to the disappearance of their provis- 
ions in the meanwhile. (" The mouse is never conceived of 
otherwise than in connection with nocturnal darkness, and 
hence, by extending the myth, in connection also' with the 
darkness of winter." De Gubernatis* Zoolog. Myth., vol. ii, 
p. 72). 

The Philistines, having come up to the spring equinox, 
now built a new cart (the new year), and took " two milch 
cows" (the Pleiades and Hyades), and having secured their 
calves (the former and latter rains), they "tie the kine to the 
cart," laying ''the ark of the Lord" thereupon, and "send it 
away that it may go " over to the children of Israel. " The 
kine (left to themselves) took the straight way to the way of 
Beth-shemesh " (house-of-the-Sun= summer: astrologically, the 
summer solstice), by which circumstance the Philistines, who 
followed up to the border of Beth-shemesh (spring equinox), 
knew that the Lord was the cause of their affliction (1 Sam. 
vi, ix).* Having thus ascertained the cause of their trouble, 
the poor Philistines "returned to Ekron (vacuity) the same 

* Other peoples than the Jews made use of portable shrines drawn by cows or oxen. 
Tacitus tells us that the goddess of the ancient Germans was "drawn in her car by heif- 
ers with much reverence, followed by the priest" (De Mor. Germ., cap. 40). Sanchoniathon 
says the same of Agruerus or Noah, who was venerated by the Byblians as the greatest of 
the Gods. The ancient idolatrous Irish had a shrine of the same sort in which the statue 
of Noah was drawn about. They called it Arn-braith = Ark-of-the-covenant. (See Faber's 
Cabiri, vol. i, pp. 218-19;. 



190 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

day, "for they feared the Lord," the Sun of summer (1 Sam. 
vi, 16). 

As the Beth-shemites were reaping their wheat " they 
lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it " 
(1 Sam. vi, 13). It was taken into the field of Joshua the 
Beth-shemite, where it was placed upon the great grass plot, or 
meadow, called Abel (" a fresh, grassy place "). Notwith- 
standing the Beth-shemites were so glad to see " the ark of the 
Lord," because they looked into it, "he (the Lord) smote of 
the people fifty thousand three score and ten men of them " 
(1 Sam. vi, 19). Ah ! here comes the rubber. Why should 
the Lord, when the poor people had done for him everything 
in their power, be so cruel as to slay "fifty thousand three 
score and ten men of them," because they had just peeped into 
his ark, a thing they could not help? This is the question. 
Reader, can any of your clergy answer it? You know they 
cannot. The moment } 7 ou approach them with questions like 
this, they get the horrors, and ever after shun you as they ever 
have done all semblance of science. But, you ask, can you 
solve it? I can, and will. No sooner had spring come, i. e., 
no sooner had the Beth-shemites looked into the ark, than the 
plague (plague means " to infest with disease ") began its 
ravages, and prevailed to the extent that it swept off the num- 
ber of persons named in the text. Now for the proof. Dr. 
Aitken tells us, "It is impossible to determine the time when 
the plague first appeared in Egypt" {Science and Prac. of 
Med., vol. i, p. 335). Dr. Tanner says : " Most authorities 
now agree that the only place in which the plague originates 
is in Egypt, from whence it is imported into other countries " 
{Prac. of Med., p. 193). But, then, it is again asked, how did 
the plague get into Syria? Yolney informs us that the plague 
prevails in Egypt in winter and spring, extending its ravages 
into the month of June ; and that " when it passes directly 
from Cairo to Damascus, all Syria is sure to be infected " 
(Travels into Egypt and Syria, vol. i, p. 267). 

But the Beth-shemites longed for the time when the plague 
would be stayed. So " they sent messengers to the people of 
Kirjath-jearim " {leaved-out-cities = summer solstice), saying: 



Israel's wanderings. 197 

" the Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord ; come 
ye down, and fetch it up to you " (1 Sam. vi, 21). So the men 
of Kirjath-jearim brought the ark of the Lord up into the 
house of Abinadab (noble-father), in the hill (summer solstice), 
i. e., midsummer came, when the plague abated, i. e., "Aaron 
(solstitial Sun) ran into the midst of the congregation" (sum- 
mer solstice), u and stood between the dead and the living " 
(Num. xvi, 47-8), i. e., between the two halves of summer, the 
first just dead, the last living. 

Here Eleazar (helping-Ram = Aries in his zenith) was sanc- 
tified, i. e., sunnified, as w r as Aaron before him (Lev. viii, 12), to 
keep the ark of the Lord (1 Sam. vii, 1). And here the ark, 
pitched in the midst of the house of David (solstitial Sun), " had 
rest" (1 Chron. vi, 31). At this place (the summer solstice) 
they found nothing in the ark, save the two tables of stone 
which Moses placed there when the children of Israel came out 
of Egypt (1 Kings viii, 9). Of course, for Moses had but just 
deposited in this " Mil " (Mount Sinai) the two tables, that the 
Lord might re-inscribe upon them the laws for the next gen- 
eration, circle, or year. The time, too, was between wheat 
harvest and the vintage, when this ark is naturally empty. 
At other times, of course, it would contain the various products 
of the year. Fellows says this ark " is but a copy of the old 
mysterious chest of the ancient Egyptians, which, among other 
monuments of the ancient state of mankind, contained ' acorns, 
heads of poppies, bay-berries, branches of the fig-tree,' etc., 
which, like the manna of the Jews, are said to have served as 
their main, sustenance in the early ages of the world." (Free- 
masonry, p. 306.) 

But David (mid-summer Sun) wished to push on ; so they 
took the " cart out of the house of Abinadab ; and Uzza and 
Ahio drave the cart." On leaving the house of Abinadab, 
" Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark ; for the oxen (what 
had become of the cows ? ) stumbled." For this dutiful act, the 
Lord smote Uzza (strength = spring), " and there he died before 
God " * (1 Chron. xiii, 10). Abihu (Uzza) and Nadab (Ahio), 

* Aries came to his zenith at the very moment, hence Uzza "died before God." The 
time and place are further identified hy the word Chidon (an arrow, the sign for the North). 



198 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Aaron's sons, shared the same fate for offering strange fire 
before the Lord (Lev. x, 2). Uzza was spring, or the first half 
of summer, which ended at the moment alluded to. 

After this David brought not the ark home to himself, to 
the city of David (summer solstice), but carried it aside into 
the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite (a patronym of Gath=a 
wine-press = autumn). Here it remained "three months," and 
" the Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that he 
had " (1 Chron. xiii, 14). Thus the ark of the Lord, having 
gone the circle of the year, passed through the hands of Goliath 
of Gath, the giant of the wine-press = King Alcohol, again into 
the hands of the Philistines ; where let it remain ; for the 
Lord hath said, by the mouth of his prophet : " I will give you 
friends which shall feed you with knowledge ; and it shall come 
to pass when ye be multiplied and increased in. the land, in 
those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more — the ark 
of the Lord ; neither shall it come to mind," etc. (Jer. iii, 15, 16.) 

The Cherubim. 

Having shown that the ark of the tabernacle, not only 
symbolized but denoted, any part of the Sun's ecliptic, wherever 
the Sun happens to be, at any time during the year, I come 
next to those monstrous symbols, called Cherubim. These 
had four faces which answered to the four quarters of the year, 
and, also, to the four cardinal points.* Ezekiel (x, 14) describes 
them thus : " The first face was the face of a cherub, and the 
second face was the face of a man, and the third, the face of a 
lion, and the fourth, the face of an eagle." In proper order, 
the fourth ought to be the face of a scorpion, but Dan (" a ser- 
pent by the way") rejected Scorpio, according to Father 
Kircher (Drummond's Edipus Judaicus, p. 19), because it 
foreboded evil — the approaching winter — and adopted the 
eagle, a paranatellon of Scorpio, instead. It might be difficult 
to find out how he bettered himself. Perhaps he had heard of 

* u The Btiddhists of Thibet," says Geo. Stanley Faber, " have also the same number 
of hearts of animals, which are disposed in the same manner; and both their divines and 
those of India, consider the four animals as the original guardians of the four quarters of 
the world." {Origin of Pag. Idol., vol. i, p. 325.) 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 199 

the Roman Eagle, which had borne to that people a world- 
wide renown. 

The monstrosities bearing the four faces just named, 
were called Cherubim, which is only the plural of cherub, an 
ox, or bull. The quartette took their name, Cherubim, from 
the " cherub," the first named of the four, because the year 
formerly began as the Sun entered Taurus. Hence the " sole 
of their feet was like a calf's foot" (Ezek. i, 7). The word 
took the plural form, Cherubim, probably, because as the 
creator, the Sun Taur divided the summer into six equal parts. 
Thus, we find (Ps. xviii, 10) the Lord (Sun) "rode upon a 
cherub (ox), and did fly." We also read (Deut. xxxiii, 12) the 
Lord squat between poor Benjamin's shoulders, and rode him 
"all the day long." Now, counting the months represented 
by Taurus and Libra, with the intervening ones, and we get 
the six months above alluded to. These Cherubim were placed 
over the mercy seat = summer. 

The Table. 

The table was an emblem of the earth. Clemens Alexan- 
drinus says : " the table, in my opinion, exhibits the image 
of the earth, supported as it is on four feet, summer, autumn, 
spring, winter, by which the year travels" (Misc., book vi, 
cap. 11). 

The twelve loaves of shew-bread, which were placed upon 
the table, Josephus plainly tells us signified the twelve months 
of the year (Antiq., book iii, cap. 7, sec. 7). 

The Golden Candlestick. 

This denoted the seven summer months, or, the seven 
planets, or the seven days of the week, or, the seven holy arch- 
angels, or angels of Mght=summer in contradistinction to the 
five angels of darkness, night, or winter — fallen angels, or 
ministers of his Satanic Majesty, the Sun in winter, etc. 

Clemens of Alexandria says this lamp. or candlestick "was 
placed to the south of the altar of incense ; and by it were 
shown the motions of the seven planets that perform their rev- 



200 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

olutions toward the south. Three branches rose on either side 
of the lamp with lights on them ; since the Sim, like the lamp, 
set in the midst of all the planets, dispenses light to those above 
and to those below him, according to a certain divine harmony. n 
(Misc., book v, cap. 6.) 

By the phrase "divine harmony," Clemens probably refers 
to the astrological order of the planets, as follows : h % & 
© $ £ D. Those on the left hand of the Sun are said to 
be above him ; those on the right, below him (Lilly's Christian, 
Astrology, p. 119, London, 1647). In other words \ % $ on 
the left of the O, are in the east, and are therefore Oriental, or 
rising; the three $ £ D, on the right of the O are in the 
west, and Occidental, or setting ; or the first three are superior, 
the last three, inferior planets. The Sun imparts light to the 
three above him, and also to the three below him. 

It is well known that most civilized nations have given the 
names of these seven planets to the seven days of the week, but 
not in the order as above arranged. In the center of the above 
group of planetary symbols, we find the O, which gave its 
name to our Sunday. On his extreme right, we have the } 
for Monday ; on his immediate left, we have $, for Tuesday, 
and so on alternately until these symbols are used up, and the 
seven days of the week all get their names. In this arrange- 
ment, the reader will see that the same " certain divine (astro- 
logical) harmony" is preserved. 

The names for most of our week days, were taken from the 
Scandinavians. (Mallefs North Antiq., p. 94.) 

The Two Pillars. 

The two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, sustain the " royal arch " 
of the Freemasons. This corresponds to the seven summer 
months (see frontispiece to Fellows^ Freemasonry). The 
first, Jachin, is literally " he (Aries) will set upright ;" the 
last, Boaz, according to G-esenius, means " alacrity" or swift- 
ness. They answer to the east and west during the entire 
year ; in spring and autumn, to the equinoxes, in summer and 
in winter, to the solstices. 



Israel's wanderings. 201 

The ancients supposed the Sun moved and not the earth. 
They also observed that this apparent motion of the Sun was 
accelerated during winter, and retarded daring summer. The 
reason of this is explained by Kepler's first law: The radius 
vector of every planet describes about the Sun equal areas in 
equal times. Hence it is found that the daily motion of the 
earth when nearest the Sun is 61 v 10", and when farthest from 
the Sun 57' 12" (Loomis' Astronomy, p. 69). Of course the 
reader will understand that these motions are the same whether 
attributed to the sun or earth. 

In 1 Kings vii, 15 we are told these pillars were eighteen 
cubits high ; in 2 Chron. iii, 15, their height is thirty-jive 
cubits. Both statements, of course, are correct as being given 
by divine inspiration, which cannot err ! " The chapiters set 
upon the tops of these pillars have been shown by Hutchison 
to have been a kind of orreries, " representing the motions of 
the planets, etc." (Drummondls Edip. Judaicus, p. 99.) 

"At the present time, in the northern temperate zone, 
spring and summer are seven days longer than autumn and 
winter." (Bunserfs Egypt, vol. iv, p. 53.) 

The Molten Sea. 

The molten sea was ten cubits in diameter and five cubits 
high (1 Kings vii, 23; 2 Chron. iv, 2). Josephus describes it 
as, in form hemispherical, and says it rested upon " a short 
pillar that had ten spirals around it, and that that pillar was 
ten cubits in diameter" (Antiq., viii, 3-5). The molten sea 
and its pedestal, then, were of the same diameter. Some have 
thought the molten sea was a type of the hemisphere \Drum- 
mond's Edip. Judaicus, p. 99 s ). Of itself, no doubt it was, 
and that of the summer hemisphere. With its pedestal of ten* 
spirals, it denoted the circle of the heavens, or the year, as the 
twelve oxen, by their position under it, sufficiently prove. 
The ten spirals around the pedestal refer to the ten quarter- 
hour circles, or climates, by which the Sun mounts the heavens 
from the spring equinox, where the days and nights are equal 

*The number 10 -'is the physical Decalogue of heaven" {Clem. Alex. Misc.. B. vi, 
cap. 16). . 



202 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

in length, to the summer solstice, where the longest day thus 
indicated is fourteen hours and a half, thus denoting a N. lati- 
tude of 35°. "At Ptolemais in Phoenicia, and at Sidon and 
Tyre, the longest day consists of fourteen hours and a quarter." 
{Strobe? s Geog., vol. i, p. 201, Bonn's edition.) These places 
are about 33° north. 

The ancient Egyptians indicated most beautifully their cli- 
mate by a serpent coiled four times about an egg (see plate 
in vol. iii, Bryantfs Mythology.) This egg emblem, supposing 
half-hour climates, points to a latitude of 30° north, making 
the longest day in the year fourteen hours. Different authors 
make use of, as it seems, different climatal zones. Those of 
Josephus and the Tower of Babel are quarter-hour zones or 
climates. 

The snuffers are the western horizon, which snuffs out the 
light of the Sun, or star, or planet, descending underneath it. 

Having thus pointed out what I conceive to be the meaning 
of the most important articles of the temple furniture, I leave 
the minor details for the intelligent reader to divine the mean- 
ing of for himself. He may rest assured, however, that all, 
when scientifically investigated, will infallibly bring forth to 
the view an astronomical signification. 

The Priest in His Robes. 

The high-priest in his robes was simply a walking minia- 
ture representation of the Tabernacle or Temple ; i. e., of the 
universe, or the year. " The twelve stones, set in four rows 
on the breast, describe for us the circle of the zodiac, in the 
four changes of the year." {Clem. Alex. Misc., B. v, cap. 6.) 
The miter, cleft at the top, sub-indicated the two halves of the 
year. " The seven planets are represented by the five stones, 
and the two carbuncles for the Sun and the Moon" {Josephus' 
Ant., B. iii, cap. 7, sec. 7). His stole referred to the zodiac, 
and his rosaries were symbols of the stars and planets ( Volneijs 
Ruins, p. 133.) 

From the lower border of the priest's robe were suspended 
alternately little bells and pomegranates. The former, in the 



ISRAELS WANDERINGS. 203 

opinion of Josephus, signified thunder, while the latter denoted 
lightning. Clemens of Alexandria gives the number of bells 
as equal to the number of days in the year ; the number of the 
pomegranates, of course, was the same. Thus this description 
will enable the reader to see in this ancient priest, the analogue 
of the Catholic priest of to-day ; who, while officiating in his 
robes, seems to personate the Lord, or summer Sun, while the 
little boy jingling his tiny bell behind him is his thunder ! 

All priests profess to represent the Lord, or what is the 
same thing, the Lord God, or Sun of Summer ; nothing would 
induce them to personate Satan, or the Sun in winter. This 
would be blasphemy and an unpardonable sin against the Holy 
Ghost ! 

Thus, having analyzed the most prominent myths of Gene- 
sis and Exodus, we shall proceed by rapid strides over the re- 
maining books of the Pentateuch ; stopping only occasionally to 
unfold the meaning of some of the most prominent rites, cere- 
monies, and incidents by-the-way. These books — Leviticus, 
^Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are, as all know, made up of a 
confused mass, or hodge-podge of rites and ceremonies ; some 
of them sensible and judicious, but most of them nonsensical 
and foolish, besides needless and vain repetitions. Neverthe- 
less, it may be well to acquaint ourselves with the origin, drift 
and tendency of some of them. 

The Scapegoat. 

The first of these we shall notice is the scapegoat found in 
Leviticus xvi — " And the goat shall bear upon him all their 
iniquities to a land not inhabited " (v. 22). The original (and 
also the marginal reading of the common Bible) is — to a land 
of "separation" in allusion, doubtless, to the line of the 
equator, which separates the two hemispheres. This line is 
M not inhabited." 

E"ow let us observe the marvels which a critical examina- 
tion of this subject will bring to light. The priest (Aaron = 
the point of the summer solstice in Cancer) is to " take the 
two goats, and present them before the Lord (Sun in Capri- 
corn, opposite Cancer then setting as the Sun rises) at the door 



204 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

of the tabernacle of the congregation " (winter solstice), where 
the Sun is, Aries, the leader of the congregation^ being on his 
meridian (Lev. xvi, 7). He is next to " cast lots upon the two 
goats ; one (Capricorn) for the Lord, and the other (Sun) for 
the scapegoat' 1 (Lev. xvi, 8). Here the Sun in Capricorn is 
conceived of as two goats, while really there is but one, and 
he a personification. This one (Capricorn) " upon which the 
Lord's lot fell," is to be instantly sacrificed (i. e., left by the 
Sun) for a sin-offering, or the remission (the giving-up) of the 
sins of the world, or of the year, i. e., the Sun's south declina- 
tion will decrease from the winter solstice and become nought 
at the spring equinox. The other, the Sun, will be for a scape- 
goat, to bear off the sins (Sun's south declination) of the 
world, which had been heaped upon him during the past three 
months, and be " presented alive before the Lord, to make an 
atonement with him " — with him, not to him (Lev. xvi, 10). 
Thus : the Goat (Capricorn) is sacrificed (left behind) when the 
Sun leaves him ; and the Sun in leaving him, escapes the Goat, 
and hence becomes the scape-goat, and so is no goat, any more 
than the man who escapes the gallows, is a gallows. The Sun 
in either of his solstices is at his greatest declination ; this is 
diminished day-by-day as he moves toward the equinox. And 
when he touches his northern tropic, he is presented alive (hot) 
before the Lord, and so makes his atonement " with him" i. e., 
becomes of one mind with him — is emphatically the Sun ; and 
as such presides over the longest day in the year. Hence the 
astrologers made the summer solstice the Sun's house, or home. 
But yet, oh ! for the Lord's sake, i. e., for the sake of the 
Sun in summer ! see what an unconscionable load of sin the 
Samaritan Creator (Capricorn) has piled upon him — nearly 
40,000,000 miles iong, and equal to 23^° (the Sun's S. declina- 
tion) of the arc of a circle whose radius is 95,000,000 miles. 
It's almost discouraging, yet old Sisyphus (the very-wise— \he 
Savior) will, as of yore, tumble his load up the high hill. See, 
already 

He has entered upon that steep ascent 
Up which, though ever difficult at first, 
More he proceeds, less is his weight of sins. 



ISRAELS WANDERINGS. 205 

And he will journey on from day to day, purging off his 
sins, in the way of Hezron (Sun's-field = the zodiac), encamping 
first before Pi-hahiroth (cave's mouth = winter solstice) before 
Baal Zephon (summer solstice) : thence passing many places, 
all astronomically significant, until he arrives at Hebron 
(spring equinox). Hebron (Sun's ecliptic) was aforetime Kir- 
jath-arba=four cities =f our cardinal points=the four seasons). 
Kirjath-arba was the father of Anak, the son of Hebron. Anak 
is literally long-neck (the Sun's ecliptic). He had three sons 
(the Anakim), the three seasons of the year: Sheshai= white = 
winter; Talmai = furrowed = spring; and Ahiman=giving- 

brother= summer. 

The Anakim. 

These were giants (Anakim) which dwelt in the land (the 
year) to which Moses sent the twelve spies (the twelve months), 
and at which they were so badly frightened, because it was " a 
land (the year = Time =Kronos= Saturn) that eateth up the 
inhabitants thereof" (Num. xiii, 32).- However, after forty 
days' search (Lent) the twelve spies returned and reported 
favorably as to the fertility and productiveness of the land, 
saying: "Surely it floweth with milk and honey" (Num. xiii, 
27). Notwithstanding its desirableness in this respect, a large 
majority of the spies were unfavorable to its invasion, because 
of its bad character, as before stated. But Caleb (dog=Canis 
major), the son of Jephnuneh (who turns about = Tropic of* 
Cancer), and Joshua (Sun of March) the son of Nun (Pisces), 
were for possessing it at once. Their counsels prevailed, and 
" those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, 
died by the plague (it was the season — spring — for the 
plague) before the Lord," i. e., before midsummer (Num. xiv, 
37). " But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of 
Jephnuneh, lived still;" proving that under similar circum- 
stances, the best way is to be just, keep clean, and fear not. 
But we have left the Scapegoat. 

The Sanhedrim. 

The word Sanhedrim signifies a sitting-together, or an 
assembly. Though the term is not to be found in the text, 



206 



THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



FIC. 4, 



the institution which gave rise to it is there found (Num. xi). 
The Sanhedrim was composed of seventy-three members. 
Authors, however, differ as to this, but the above is doubtless 
the true number ; because, after Moses had set the " seventy 
elders round 
about the 
tabernacle, " 
or the Suns 
ecliptic,there 
remained in 
the camp, El- 
dad and Me- 

dad (Num. xi, 27). These with 
Moses, added to the seventy 
make out seventy-three; whicl: 
is one elder for every five days 
of the year of 365 days. " This 
assembly sat in a rotunda, 
half of which was built with- 
out the temple, and half with- 
in," plainly symbolic of winter 
and summer, the latter being 
the temple, as we have before 
said {Bees' Cyclopaedia, Art. 
Sanhedrim). This institution, 
we must remember, was sug- 
gested to Moses by his father- 
in-law, Jethro (redundancy = 
the odd month of summer = 
September). That these sev- 
enty-three elders pointed to as 
many divisions of the year of 
five days each, is confirmed by 
the fact that the children of Israel went up out of Egypt " by 
five in a rank " (Ex. xiii, 18), and also by the fragment of an 
old Egyptian Zodiac found at Rome, whereupon thirty -six 
men (answering to the thirty-six decans, or periods of ten days 
each), are, as is evident, placed around and outside the twelve 
constellations of the zodiac. 




ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 207 

Eldad (Ram-lover = Sun in Aries) and Medad (Water-lover 
—Sun in Libra) were the two equinoxes. The Hebrew Zodiac 
was divided into four camps — the camp of Reuben (Aquarius): 
the camp of Ephraim (Taurus); the camp of Judah (Leo); 
and the camp of Dan (Scorpio). These were the same with 
the four cardinal points, or the two equinoxes, and the two 
solstices — also with the cherubim of Ezekiel. 

All the elders, including Eldad and Medad, stood up with 
Moses in the tabernacle (the Sun's ecliptic), and while Eldad 
and Medad prophesied in their camp, " Moses got him into the 
camp, he and the elders of Israel" (Num. xi, 30), i. e., the Sun 
entering Taurus, Aquarius came to his zenith at sunrise. The 
Lord (atmosphere) now sent forth a wind (the spring monsoon) 
which brought in quails from the sea (migratory birds of 
spring). Of these the people, of course, helped themselves for 
food. But lo ! "while the flesh was yet between their teeth, 
ere it was chewed," the Lord got mad, and " smote the people 
with a very great plague" (Num. xi, 3*3). 

The Plague Again. 

Many of the people died and were buried here, hence "the 
Lord called the place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they 
buried the people that lusted " (Num. xi, 34). The people 
longed for spring, the love-season, but when it came they were 
seized by the plague and died. Kibroth-hattaavah =graves-of- 
the-lusting. From Kibroth-hattaavah they moved to Hazeroth 
(probably October). Here, Moses having wed an Ethiopian 
woman (Virgo in winter), Miriam, Moses' sister, and Aaron, 
his brother, spake against (opposite to Moses), because of his 
unfortunate alliance. " Now, the man Moses w r as very meek 
(low down in the zodiac) above all the men which were upon 
the face of the earth" (Num. xii, 3). The Hebrew word here 
translated " meek," properly signifies " oppressed," i. e., low 
down, as above — Sun in Aquarius. 

The Lord (Sun) having called Moses, Miriam and Aaron 
together, and talked with them awhile, departed. "And 
behold, Miriam was leprous, white as snow" (Num. xii, 10). 



208 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

That is, while the Sun and Virgo are together in the same 
hemisphere, Miriam was "leprous, white aa snow" ; but when 
the people moved from Hazeroth and came to El-Paran (the 
spring equinox) she changed color, i. e., Yirgo set, and her 
countenance grew darker. 

Korah, Dathan and Abiram. 

The attentive reader will have perceived ere this that a 
species of dualism generally prevails throughout the Bible; 
that the year is usually divided into two seasons — winter and 
summer. The Flood myth forms the first exception. That 
of Abram and Sarai began with trinitism, but soon lapsed into 
dualism. In the myth of Korah, Dathan and Abiram we have 
an attempt to restore trinitism. With Moses and Aaron on 
the one side, and the three above named on the other, the 
battle is to be fought, and decided, as we shall see, in favor of 
no change. Each party has, of course, its adherents. But I 
will proceed to the Myth's analysis. Korah (hail) is winter ; 
Abiram= Abram (father-of-elevation) is spring; and Dathan 
(giver) is summer. Moses and Aaron are winter and summer 
as before. Korah was the son of Izhar (the shining-one = the 
Sun of summer), i. e., winter follows summer. Dathan and 
Abiram were the sons of Eliab (Ram-father = Aries in winter), 
i. e.. spring and summer follow winter. 

These, with certain of the children of Israel, " rose up 
before Moses," i. e., the seven summer constellations with part 
of Scorpio (the " certain of the children of Israel "), in all 250 
princes of the assembly (Zodiac), who were famous in the con- 
gregation (seven summer months), and told him he took too 
much upon himself. Whereat " Moses fell upon his face " — 
came to his meridian, the Sun in Scorpio (Num. xvi, 4) — and 
said to his opponents : To-morrow (next winter), if you put fire 
and incense in your censers, you will find out " whom the Lord 
doth choose." " Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of 
Levi," retorts Moses (v. 7). Because the Lord (Sun) hath 
taken you to seize him in the tabernacle and stand before the 
congregation (v. 9), ye would seize the priesthood also (v. 10). 
Why murmur against Aaron, your high priest (v. 11)? 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 209 

Moses (Aquarius) now sent to call Dathan and Abiram 
(v. 12), who answered : " We will not come up " (they were 
going down and couldn't come up) ; and flippantly accuse him 
of taking them from a land " flowing with milk and honey " to 
kill them in the wilderness ; he hadn't " brought them into a 
land flowing with milk and honey " — winter was coming on — 
not he ; and besides, he would now " put out the eyes of these 
men " (the darkness of winter, or Egypt). Eo Sir ! " We will 
not come up." 

Moses was now very wroth (the weather became cold), and 
appealed to the Lord, saying: "I have not taken one ass 
from them" — neither of the asses (stars) of Cancer had yet 
set. Moses was completely foiled. However, he ordered 
Korah, who was with him, and of his tribe (Reuben), to put in 
his appearance with his company — " thou and they and Aaron 
to-morrow " (v. 16). 

At the appointed time, Moses with his party stood " in the 
door of the tabernacle of the congregation " — at the winter 
solstice, Sun in Aquarius and Aries on his meridian. Korah, 
being of the same tribe with Moses, of course, stood with him, 
"at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (v. 19). 
The Lord now proposed to consume the congregation (the seven 
summer constellations) in a moment, but they fell upon their 
faces, i. e., one after another came to its meridian. So the 
Lord told Moses to order them to depart from the tents of these 
wicked men (the tropic of Capricorn), lest they be consumed in 
all their sins (Sun's S. declination). Moses then stood up, and 
spake to the people (Aquarius began his yearty round), telling 
them the ground would cleave asunder, and the earth would 
open her mouth and swallow up his opponents (the opposite 
constellations would go down as he went up), and that they 
would go down alive into the pit (the dark hemisphere) : that 
if his predictions did not come to pass he was no prophet (v. 29). 
Accordingly, when Moses had made an end of speaking (i. e., 
at the end of the year), "the ground clave asunder and Korah 
and all that appertained to him (Moses too) went down alive 
into the pit " (v. 31). That is, during the year all the zodiacal 
constellations rose, culminated and set, — went down into the 
14 



210 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

pit, Sheol, Hell, or the "under-world," according to Gesenius, 
Here let ns observe, again, that the Lord got mad us usual, 
and slew 14,700 people with the plague. At this the children 
of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying : u Ye 
have killed the people of the Lord." This they could not 
deny, as it was true. But Moses ordered Aaron to take his 
censer (fire-pan) and put fire (the Sun) in it, and run into the 
midst of the congregation (i. e., in the midst of the seven sum- 
mer months), and make an atonement for the people, that the 
plague might be stayed. Aaron did as directed, and stood be- 
tween the dead and the living, i. e., the Sun came to his north- 
ern tropic, and the plague was stayed as usual. 

Aaron's Rod Blossoms. 

Still the children of Israel, who were a stiff-necked people, 
murmured ; and the Lord directed Moses to take of each of 
the twelve tribes a rod — twelve rods in all, and " write every 
man's name upon his rod " (Num. xvii, 2). Only upon the 
rod of Levi (bound together=the seven summer months), thou 
shalt write the name of Aaron (summer-Sun); for one rod 
shall be for the head of the house of their father ?" (v. 3). This 
" head of the house of their fathers " was the first of the zodi- 
acal constellations — Aries. This done, " thou shalt lay them 
(the rods) up in the tabernacle of the congregation (the seven 
summer months), before the testimony" (Jia-eduth from root 
ud to circle = the year), where (at the beginning of the year) 
I will meet you " (v. 4). As the Lord commanded so did 
Moses, "And it came to pass on the morrow (in the spring — 
winter being night and summer day) that as Moses went into 
the tabernacle of witness (i. e., as Aquarius ascended into and 
passed over the summer hemisphere, behold ! the rod of Aaron 
for the house of Levi (the summer) was budded, and brought 
forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds (v. 8). 

Now, who is there in all this world that cannot see the 
transparency of this myth ? Aaron is the summer sun ; Levi 
is the seven summer months, and the rod of Levi is that part 
of the Sun's ecliptic which answers to the seven summer 



Israel's wanlerixgs. 211 

months. All together constitute summer, which produces 
buds, blossoms, and fruit. 

" Of all the trees," says Philo Judseus (Bonn's, vol. iii, p- 
113), that are accustomed to blossom in the spring, the almond 
is the first to flourish, bringing as it were, good tidings of abun- 
dance of fruit ; and that afterward it is the last to lose its 
leaves, extending the yearly old age of its verdure to the long- 
est period." 

The almond, then, was the most fitting of all the trees 
that could be chosen as the symbol of summer. 

Death of Aaron. 

Though Aaron was not a man, yet being represented as 
such, it was necessary, since man without exception is mortal, 
that he should die at some time, and at some place. 

The Lord (Sun) it appears, fixed upon mount Hor, or the 
winter solstice, as the place, the time being winter, as we learn 
from the text immediately in connection, " The children of 
Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh 
(holy = summer), and came unto mount Hor" (mid-winter). 
Here the Lord told Moses and Aaron that " Aaron shall be 
gathered unto his people," that he should not enter the land 
which he had given to the children of Israel, because they had 
rebelled against him at Meribah in asking for water (Num. 20). 
The Lord, therefore, directed Moses (Sun in Aquarius) to take 
Aaron (summer-Sun) and Eleazar (Aries on his Meridian) up 
into mount Hot. This done, Moses stripped Aaron (winter 
strips summer) of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar 
his son ; and Aaron died there in the mount, and like all his 
predecessors, was buried in the cave of Machpelah ! 

But suppose we take the story literally, as is commonly 
done. What then? By what means did Aaron die? Did 
not Moses then and there murder his poor brother? "Moses 
stripped Aaron of his garments " (Num. xx, 28), and having 
stripped him, did he not then and there knock out the brains, 
if any he had, of his brother, with the club he always carries 
in his hand? Who knows? Only the three were present. 



212 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Aaron was dead, and the dead tell no tales ; Moses, the mur- 
derer would not tell, and Eleazar was bribed not to tell ! Oh ! 
but this, I shall be told, is divine revelation. Very well; then 
it is revealed that Moses slew an Egyptian (Ex. ii, 12). Now 
Aaron was an Egyptian, i.' e., he was down in Egypt with 
Moses ; and thus it is proved by divine revelation, that Moses, 
having spoiled his poor brother of his garments, slew him 
without the slightest provocation — no excuse whatever, except 
that probably he wanted the poor man's garments, for the 
weather was cold. But the deed being done, his next care 
was to exculpate himself of the unnatural crime of fratricide. 
To this end, after its discovery, he told the people the Lord 
said he must murder his brother, Aaron. But it is asserted 
that the Lord did not tell Moses to murder his brother. An- 
swer : True, he may not have told him directly; but he did say 
to Moses: "Aaron shall be gathered unto his people" (Num. 
xx, 24), and was not that enough? Do not the minions of 
every tyrant understand, when hints are thrown up to them, 
that such or such ought to die, what is meant, and act accord- 
ingly? Oh! ye priests, ye who have practiced this species 
of murder for ages untold, can ye misunderstand the import 
of " Aaron shall be gathered unto his people f " 

The Brazen Serpent. 

Here we have the earliest homoeopathic practice on record. 
The Lord having first caused the snakes to bite the people, 
afterward directed Moses to hang a serpent upon a pole in 
order to heal them. Hahnemann must have taken his first 
hint from this record. However, we shall find this but one of 
the thousand variations of the same old story ; the difference 
consisting merely in a change of names and circumstances. 

"And they (the Israelites) journeyed from Mount Hor," 
where Moses murdered his brother Aaron, by way of Edom 
(winter) and the Red Sea up to the wilderness (midbar= speak- 
ing, from dabar, to speak, probably Lent), when they (the 
Israelites=:Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio) spake against (set 
opposite to) God and Moses (Aries and Aquarius, then rising). 



Israel's wanderings. 213 

" Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the 
wilderness? for there is no bread (provisions were getting 
scanty toward spring), neither is there any water (it was too 
early for the latter rain) ; and our soul loatheth this light (vile) 
bread" (stuff) : — meaning the manna, or whatever they could 
pick up. So " the Lord sent fiery serpents (the plague) among 
the people ; and much people died " (Num. xxi, 6). 

Discovering their mistake, the people confessed to Moses, 
and besought him to pray to the Lord for the removal of the 
serpents. Moses did as the people desired ; and the Lord told 
him to "make a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole (the Sun 
in his northern solstice) ; and it shall come to pass, that every 
one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live " (Num. 
xxi, 8). This is another record of the prevalence of the plague. 
It subsides here, as usual, at the coming of midsummer. The 
days during which this pestilence prevailed were looked upon 
as so many fiery serpents ; the Sun's ecliptic being always 
symbolized by a coiled serpent with its extremities meeting in 
the winter solstice. 

The people, in the meanwhile, journeyed, making short 
moves, first pitching in Oboth (water-skins). Here Moses 
(Aquarius) coming to his zenith, struck the rock a second time, 
the water (latter rain) flowed, and the people filled their water- 
skins ; hence they called the place Oboth. After Oboth, they 
next came to Ije-abarim (heaps-of-the-crossing) in the wilder- 
ness (place of intercalation); thence they passed to Zared 
(willows, or bulrushes), where Pharaoh's daughter found 
Moses. Thence they pitched beyond Anion (river of rejoicing 
= spring equinox). Passing Arnon they came to Beer (not 
Beer-sheba, but to Beer-elim=the twelve wells of water men- 
tioned in Ex. xv, 27). Mattanah (gift=harvest) came next. 
Leaving Mattanah, they arrive at Nahaliel (the Kam's possession 
= Aries in his zenith) ; their next station being Bamoth 
(heights=summer solstice), on the dividing ridge (Pisgah) of 
which they erected the serpent Moses had made for them, upon 
a pole (at the intersection of the Sun's ecliptic and solistitial 
colure), in the very place David afterward planted the "Ark of 
God," and the plague in both cases was stayed. From 



214 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Bamoth, the Israelites proceeded south into the country of 
Moab (Wash-pot, Ps. lx, 8= Aquarius) until they reached the 
top of another Pisgah (division = winter solstice) which looketh 
toward Jeshimon (a wastes winter). Here the year ended. 

Og, or Gog, and Magog. 

Moses being of an exceedingly restless disposition, instantly 
set off upon his next tour (Num. xxi, 21) ; and the Israelites 
sent messengers unto Sihon (sprouter = spring, from Suh, " to 
sprout forth "), king of the Amorites (from amar, to speak, or 
to bring forth to light— th.Q spring months), asking permission 
to pass through his territory. Sihon objected, and the parties 
met at Jahaz (the trodden down place=ip\2Lce of intercalation). 
Israel was victorious, and possessed themselves of the land unto 
the Jabbok, even unto the children of Amnion (children-of-the- 
Snn, or descendants of incest, i. e., of Lot and his daughters). 
And Israel dwelt in Heshbon (closing-of-the-year), the city of 
Sihon, king of the Amorites. Hence, the proverb : " Woe to 
thee, Moab (wash-pot=end of winter) ; thou art undone, O 
people of Chemosh (depression = winter). Heshbon is perished 
even unto Dibon " (end of the year), where the Sun's south 
declination comes to nought, and the days and nights become 
of equal length. From Dibon (spring equinox) Moses sent to 
spy out Jaazer (whom the Ram helps^the first spring month). 
Having conquered Jaazer, " they turned and went up by the 
way of Bashan (Beth-shan = Sun's house— the constellation Leo, 
or mid-summer). Here they found Og (long-neck), one of the 
Anakim, king of Bashan (summer), whom they slew, and pos- 
sessed his land. 

Og appears to be the same as Gog, as the initial letters of 
both words in the Hebrew are interchangeable. This opinion 
is rendered still more probable, if, indeed, it is not absolutely 
proven, by the fact that, in addition to the evidence above 
adduced, we find a star in the right leg of Aquarius, named 
Magog, i. e., opposite Gog. Thus we may set it down as proven 
that Og or Gog is the summer solstice, and Magog the winter 
solstice. " The Syrian Mabog is obviously derived from Malm- 



Israel's wanderings. 215 

bhaga" a Sanscrit name. Pliny spells it Magog. " Mabog, or 
Magog, or Ilierapolis, or City of the Sun, was called, also, Old 
JVinuSyOY Nineveh ." (See Asiatic Researches ^oi. iv, pp. 390-1.) 
But Og had a bedstead, and a big one, too — nine cubits 
long, by four in breadth (Deut. iii, 11). It was of iron, the 
symbol of winter (Lilly's Christ. Astrol., p. 68). Upon this 
iron bedstead the summer Sun slept in winter. " Awake ! 
Why sleepest thou, Q Lord ? " (Ps. xliv, 23.) 

Balaam and his Ass. 

" The story of Balaam's ass has often been an object of rid- 
icule among sceptics and infidels" {Rees 1 Cyclo., Art. Balaam). 
And no wonder. So long as theologians persist in claiming 
for these Bible fictions, which they have never been able to 
find head or tail to, literal and veritable history, they may 
expect to be looked upon as objects of ridicule, and even of 
scoffing. Of course, their living depending upon it, we shall 
anticipate that they will continue, as ever, to seek upon the 
surface for what is hidden in the depths below. Instead of 
searching for the deep things of God (1 Cor. ii, 10), they will 
remain content with the filthy scum which floats upon the sur- 
face of the written word. So long as gross selfishness and 
downright laziness govern them, they will scorn to secure 
to themselves for the benefit of their slavish dupes, the rich 
kernel of science, but will remain content with the shells and 
husks which surround and hide the priceless gem. But let us 
look to our most interesting subject — Balaam and his ass 
(Num. xxiv). 

In the progress of our researches, we have seen the year 
divided, at first, into two parts — once into three, which, hav- 
ing served its purpose, was quickly discarded. After, in the 
time of Jacob, it was cut up into twelve parts, or months. 
Later still, on the institution of the Sanhedrim, it was further 
distributed into seventy-three subdivisions of five days each, 
thus making the year to consist of 365 days. As these 365 
days do not make a full year, but lack nearly the fourth of a 
day, calendographers, not being able to fill out the year with 



216 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the fractional part of a day, have agreed to add a day to every 
fourth year, which is too much by 11 minutes and 10.3 seconds. 
This overplus was corrected in a manner to be explained in 
another place ; the object of this myth being seemingly the 
'disposal of this bissextile or leap-year day. 

The first position of the children of Israel in this myth, as 
ascertained from Numbers xxii, 1, was in the plains of Moab 
on this side Jordan by Jericho, i. e., it was near spring. 

"And Balak (destroy er= winter), the son of Zippor (singer 
= summer), saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites " (from 
amar, to speak=the intercalary days^the dwellers in Midian, 
the land of strife— the time occupying the last days of winter 
and the first of spring). And Balak (destroyer), who was 
king of the Moabites (winter days), sent messengers (astrolo- 
gers) unto Balaam (a foreign er= leap-year day), the son of 
Beor (Moon, the day left, after 13 lunations of 28 days each), 
to Pethor (table=plane of the equator), to inform him of a 
people just arrived from Egypt (winter), which cover the earth, 
requesting him (Balaam) to come and " curse me this people ' ? 
(winter curses the people). Balaam detained the messengers 
over night (Num. xxii, 8) that he might learn the Lord's will 
in the matter. God told Balaam he could not go with Balak, 
and that he should not curse the Israelites, for they are blessed, 
being summer and not winter months. Thus, the messengers 
(astrologers) having consulted the stars during that night, could 
not say whether the bissextile day ought to be added to that 
3^ear or not. Balak, determined to carry his point, next sent 
princes "more and more honorable than they," i. e., better 
skilled in their profession. These Balaam also kept over night, 
that he " might know what the Lord will say unto me more " 
(Num. xxii, 19). God (Aries) now told Balaam to go with 
them, i. e., the astrologers found the day (Balaam) should be 
added to that year, and added it accordingly. So Balaam (the 
bissextile day) rose up in the morning and mounted his ass 
(the Sun is here mythologically styled an ass) and went with 
the princes of Moab (the winter months), i. e., the bissextile day 
was added to the winter side of the year, as it is still done. 
We may here take note that the word athor, here translated 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 217 

ass, comes from a root which means to move by short steps, as 
the Sim apparently does. Time, a part of which is Balaam, is 
the Sun's burden. 

But God's anger was kindled (literally the Ram's nose 
became red. for it was rising just then), because Balaam went. 
However, his ass faltered three times (the three watches of the 
night). The third time Balaam's anger was kindled, i. e., his 
nose became red (it was not only the dawn of the day, but the 
dawn of spring also), and he smote the ass with a staff = 
malckel= germination, from makel, to germinate. The third 
time, the ass spoke (vegetation began to appear), and the Lord 
opened Balaam's eyes (^the sun rose just then), and he fell flat 
upon his face (Xiun. xxii, 31), and the farce was near its end. 
(We remember that Peter denied his Lord three times, when 
his eyes were opened at cock-crowing, i. e., when the Sun rose). 
Balaam's two servants were the Fishes of February, and the 
wall he rode against was the spring equinox. He couldn't 
curse the children of Israel, the enemies of Balak, because they 
were blessed ; the word that God (Aries) put in his mouth, 
that only he could speak. 

Balaam next went with Balak to Kirjath-huzoth (dividing- 
city = spring equinox). Here Balak (winter) offered oxen and 
sheep (Taurus and Aries), and he brought Balaam unto the 
high places of Baal (spring equinox). Here Balaam orders 
Balak to build * him seven altars (seven summer months), and 
prepare him seven oxen and seven rams (Aries and Taurus as 
they appear consecutively during these seven summer months) : 
and Balak did so (Xum. xxiii, 1). Soon after (v. 4) God (Aries) 
met Balaam and told him he had prepared the seven altars, etc. 
So " The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth " and told him 
to go with Balak (the year ended). And Balaam took up his 
parable, and said Balak, the king of Moab, hath let me rest 
(yanuh, from nuh, to rest; not "brought" as in the English 
text) from Aram out of the mountains of the East, i. e., Balaam 
being the last' day of that year, rests + at the spring equinox. 

* At 1 Sara \i, 7. we read that the Philistines huilt a "new cart " for the children of 
Israel. Balak erected the seven altars in lien of the i- new cart "=the new year. 

t This rest of Balaam was precisely like the rest that God took after his work of the 
creation. Though winter and summer alternate, time goes on nevertheless. 



218 THE SCIENCE 0E THE BIBLE. 

The winter constellations being now all above the horizon at 
sunrise, Balaam cannot curse Israel (summer) ; for, he asks, 
how shall I curse whom God (El— Aries in winter ; not Elo- 
him, the Sun-rams of summer) hath not cursed? (The God of 
winter cannot curse summer ; and the God of Summer never 
curses). 

Who can count the dust, or number the fourth part of 
Israel? i. e., who can number the endless productions of sum- 
mer? Wherefore, Balaam exclaims, " Let me die the death of 
the righteous, and let my last end be like his," i. e., let me not 
die at all, for spring, the righteous, or getting-up season, is the 
renewal of life ; and let " my future " (aharithi) be like his 
(the righteous). The word Jets (end) does not occur in the text 
at all. 

Balaam didn't die just then, for directly after, Balak took 
him into the field of Zophim (honey = mid-summer), to the top 
of Pisgah (division = summer solstice), where Satan afterward 
took our Savior, and told him to " curse them from thence " 
A T um. xxiii, 13). But Balaam told Balak that " God (El) is 
not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he 
should repent" (v. 19); and well may we rejoice that Balaam 
told the exact truth ; for the Lord (Jahveh), says he, " hath 
blessed, and I cannot reverse it." He (El= Aries in winter) 
hath not plowed in Jacob (spring), nor seen labor (amal) in 
Israel (summer) ; the Lord his God was with him, and the. 
shout of a king was with him, i. e., it was spring. However, 
" God (El— Aries) hath brought them out of Egypt (winter) ; 
he hath, as it were, the strength (splendor) of a unicorn " 
(v. 22) ; i. e., of a reem, or of something "that lifts itself up" 
( Aries). " The meaning unicorn has no foundation " (Euersfs 
Reb. Lex., p. 1270). 

Here, at the lifting-up, or summer solstice, there was " no 
enchantment against Jacob," i. e., there were no nachash, or 
fiery serpents to bite the people, no looking-into-the-ark, and so 
no plague, but the great brazen serpent, or summer Sun, was 
set upon the pole (summer solstice), and the Sun of righteous- 
ness had risen with healing in his wings (Mai. iv, 2). Neither 
was there divination or witchcraft against Israel ; but all was 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 219 

in the most flourishing and happy condition. Even Balak re- 
lented in part of his purpose, and said : " Neither curse them 
at all, nor bless them at all " (Num. xxiii, 25). It was exactly 
.at the time when it might be said of Jacob and of Israel, in 
way of contrast, what hath God {El— the Aries of winter) 
w r rought ? 

Balak, being of the sort who believe in the rule, "Try, try 
■again;' said to Balaam: "Come, I pray thee, I will bring 
thee unto another place." And he took him around to the 
top of Peor (opening= spring) that looketh toward Jeshimon 
{the wilderness, or the place of intercalation ; for Balaam must 
^complete the circle, or the year). "Perad venture it will please 
the Gods {ha- Eloliim— the gods = the summer months) that 
thou mayest curse me them from thence." Here, the custom- 
ary offerings of seven bulls, etc., having been made, " Balaam 
saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel," i. e., to cause the 
oarth to bear good crops in summer. He, therefore, lifted up 
his eyes and saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their 
tribes (it was summer), and the spirit of the Gods (Elohim) was 
upon him, when he took up his parable from his third point of 
view, exclaiming: "How goodly are thy tents (months), O 
Jacob (spring), and thy tabernacles (months), O Israel " (sum- 
mer). He next proceeds, summer being past, with his 
prophecy : " He (Sun in Aquarius) shall pour the water out of 
his buckets," etc., "and his king (strength) shall be raised up 
out of Agag,* and his kingdom shall be lifted up " (Num. xxiv, 
7). Thus Balaam praised and did not curse Balak's enemies = 
the summer months. 

"And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam (winter 
was closing), saying : I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, 
behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times." 
" Therefore, flee thou to thy place ; " which he at once pro- 
ceeded to. do, while at the same time he would advertise Balak 



* Agag (heat, or the Sun) was king of the Amalekites (laziness); heat heing the great 
promoter of laziness, especially in warm countries. Philo Judaeus says, "the name 
Amalek, heing interpreted, means k the people looking up ' " {Works, vol. ii. p. 168, Bonn's 
Ed.) This interpretation amounts to about the same as mine, since all lazy people are 
apt to look up, and think themselves better than they who work. Indeed, it matters little 
which way they look, so they quit looking into the pockets of the laborer for their support. 



220 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

what this people (summer) shall do to thy people (winter) in 
the latter days (Num. xxiv, 14). 

Here Balaam seems to allude pretty plainly to the great, or 
Platonic cycle of 25,920 years,* caused by the precession of the 
equinoxes; for it would appear from the text that summer 
will, at some future day, take the place of winter, and vice 
versa. Balak says : "A Star (Regulus) shall go out from 
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and smite through 
both sides of Moab (winter), and shall destroy all the children 
of Sheth" = winter months (v. 17). 

Edom (winter) and. Seir (Capricorn) shall become a posses- 
sion for his (Balak's) enemies (summer months). Asshur (win- 
ter) shall carry thee (Balak) away captive. Cain (winter) shall 
be wasted, until Asshur shall carry him away captive. And 
Amalek (laziness) — poor Amalek, though the first of nations 
(all primitive and savage nations are lazy) — his doom " shall 
be that he perish forever." " Ships shall come from Chittim 
(=Hittim = dreads winter) and shall afflict Asshur (now winter; 
then summer) and shall afflict Eber (now summer ; then win- 
ter), and he (Asshur and Eber) shall perish forever.'' 

The " ships " (constellation Argo-navis) now rise with Leo ; 
and the star referred to was probably Regulus or Cor Leonis. 

* Bunsen thinks but one of these cycles has passed, together with 1,240 years of our 
own era, since the creation of man upon the earth. He says: " Less than one period is 
impossible, were it only because of the stubborn fact of the strata of languages" {Egypt. 
vol. iv, p. 564). 

The learned Baron was much more conversant with Theology and its kindred sub- 
jects than with Geology and Palaeontology. Fragments of burnt brick have been brought 
up from a depth of seventy-two feet, without penetrating the alluvium in the Nile valley. 
This depth, according to the calculations of Mr. Horner, would indicate that these pieces 
of brick were "buried more than 30,000 years ago" (Foster's Pre-hist. Races of the U. S., 
p. 48), a period 2,840 years greater than that assigned by Bunsen for the birth of man. and 
yet these fragments were made, nobody knows how long before they were buried. Sir C. 
Lyell believes " North America was peopled more than a thousand centuries ago by the 
human race " (Antiq. of Man, p. 204). Sir J. Lubbock says: " It may be doubted whether 
even geologists yet realize the great antiquity of our race" (Pre-hist. Times, p. 419). 

" The stubborn fact of the strata of language " is no more a proof of the date of the 
origin of man than of any other animal. Where are the strata of the languages of the 
mound-builders of the Ohio valley, a race of whom little or nothing is known ; of the cave- 
men of Europe, whose bones are found associated with those of animals long since extinct; 
of the owner of the Neanderthal skull ; " of our ancestors of the miocene period " (see 
Lubbock's Pre-hist. Times, p. 423), or even of the ancestors of the Aryan races? Who can 
fix the exact dates of these, or any of them? Nobody. 

Thousands of languages with their "strata," had, doubtless, passed into oblivion, and 
were beyond the possibility of recovery, long anterior to the historic era! 



221 

If so, the time required from now, to fulfill this prophecy, will 
be about 10,800 years. Hence the prophet says : " I shall see 
him, but not now ; I shall behold him, but not near' 1 (Num. 
xxiv, IT). 

And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place 
(i. e., he went the circuit of the year) ; and Balak went his 
way ; " while Israel," as usual at the end of the year, "abode 
in Shittim" (winter) (Num. xxv, 1). 

ZlMKI AND COZBL 

This myth is found in Num. xxv. Its object is to record 
the ravages of another plague. Of course, this must be done 
in a manner different from any of the preceding. The point 
of departure, however, is the same as ever — from Shittim (win- 
ter solstice), where the people begin to commit whoredom with 
the daughters of Moab (Lot's daughters). In due time, " Israel 
joined himself unto Baal-peor (spring equinox), and the anger 
of the Lord was kindled against Israel," i. e., the Sun coming 
to the spring equinox, the weather became warmer. And the 
Lord said unto Moses : " Take all the heads (zodiacal constella- 
tions) of the people (the stars), and hang them up before the 
Lord against the Sun," i. e., Aquarius passing on in the ever- 
revolving circle (the zodiac), will bring up each of the zodiacal 
constellations in its turn before the Loi'd, or in conjunction 
with the Sun, and thus turn away the fierce anger of the Lord 
(the heat of the Sun) from Israel, i. e., the weather will become 
cooler toward the end of summer. 

So " Moses said unto the judges of Israel (the zodiacal 
constellations as they severally come up to the equinoctial line), 
slay ye every one his men (the stars in the opposite, or setting 
constellation) that were joined (six months before) with Baal- 
peor." Every constellation, be it remembered, rising in con- 
junction with the Sun, is said to slay the opposite, or setting 
constellation. 

" And behold, one of the children of Israel (Simeon 
= Pisces") came (to the spring equinox) and brought unto his 
brethren a Midianitish woman (Virgo setting) in the sight of 



222 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Moses (as Pisces comes to the eastern horizon, Virgo touches 
the western, and is opposite Aquarius), and in the sight of all 
the congregation of Israel, who were weeping (it was the latter 
rain) before the door (spring equinox) of the tabernacle of the 
congregation" (the seven summer months). 

And when Phinehas (brazen month), who is the same as 
Elijah (see Phinehas, Bib. Diet.), the son of Eleazar (helping- 
Ram), the son of Aaron (summer sun), saw it, he rose up (to 
heaven like Elijah) from among the congregation, and took a 
javelin in his hand (Sun in Aries), and went after the man of 
Israel (Zimri = singer, a phylarch of Simeon =Pisces) unto the 
tent (hak/cuhah— Si\ cove = summer solstice), and thrust both of 
them through, the man of Israel — (Pisces in his zenith), and the 
woman (Cozbi= deception = Virgo on her meridian), through 
the belly (middle, Gesenius has " genetalia muliebra"); i. e., 
the Sun came to his northern tropic, when, as usual, the plague 
was stayed, though 24,000 people were swept off during its 
continuance. 

The Lord was so tickled by this act of Phinehas that he 
afterward told Moses (Sun in Aquarius) that Phinehas had turned 
his wrath (heat) away from the children of Israel, i. e., that the 
heat diminished from the summer solstice, and winter came on, 
as usual. The children again brought up at Shittim, or the 
winter solstice, where the year ended. 

The Midianitish Massacre. 

The last principal myth of the Pentateuch which I shall 
notice, is that of the massacre of the Midianitish women and 
children. This is commonly pounced upon by infidels as one of 
the most atrocious and fiendish acts that can be imagined, and 
that, too, if the story be taken literally, with signal justice ! 
Its language reveals, as language is ever bound to do, not only 
the utter want of decency and refinement of the Jewish peo- 
ple, whoever they may have been, but shows also to what an 
abominable, beastly and offensive state of mind their ignorant, 
uncultivated and savage priests were reduced, when this filthy 
and inhuman myth w T as framed. We may rest assured, how- 



ISRAEL'S WANDERINGS. 223 

ever, that no such transaction ever transpired literally ; for we 
may set it down as an impossibility that 12,000 men ever slew 
in the manner signified, 48,000 men, and took captive 100,000 
women and children ; all of which last, except 32,000 girls 
" that had not known man by lying with him," they mur- 
dered in cold blood ; and all this without the loss of a single 
man. The thing is impossible. If true, whr.t did these 12,000 
men do with the 116,000 dead bodies? Did they bury them \ 
We are not told. Besides the dead, they had to care for 32,000 
young girls, 675,000 sheep, 72,000 beeves, 70,000 asses, 
together with goats and "all manner of beasts" (Num. xxxi, 
30). These 12,000 men must have had their hands full with- 
out caring for the dead. The 116,000 carcasses were, doubtless, 
left to putrefy and cause the plague. 

Of the 32,000 virgins, the Lord got just 32 for his share! 
The Lord, then, certainly did not get the lion's share ! May be 
he didnt care much for virgins. However, he seems to have been 
content with the 32 girls the Israelites gave him, which is 
more than may be said of some of his followers ! 

And it is such stories as this that we are called upon by 

" Those cherubs, earthly ministers" 

to believe, and that, too, by their simple say so, as veritable 
history, revealed to them by God, as his word ! Bah ! out upon 
ye, priests ; the story is not true ; it is not history. The lan- 
guage beneath which is veiled the true meaning, is mytholog- 
ical, and of the coarsest and most revolting description ; reveal- 
ing the foul and brutish character of the intellect that excogi- 
tated it. The numbers are all round numbers, and as such are 
evidently mythological, and hence fictitious. 

But what does this ugly and filthy myth mean ? And the 
Lord spake unto Moses, saying: "Avenge the children of 
Israel of the Midianites (Num. xxxi, 1, 2)." Who were the 
Midianites % The inhabitants of Midian, of course. Well, 
who or what was Midian (literally strife)? " The children of 
Israel pitched in the plains of Moab, on this side Jordan, by 
Jericho (Num. xxii, 1). Jordan by Jericho is the spot where 
the sun crosses the equinoctial line in spring. Hence the time 



221 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

was Lent = February. Here were the children of Israel, among 
the Midianites, the last days of winter, blustering days: 
between winter and summer — between " Moab (winter solstice) 
on the one hand, and Mt. Sinai (summer solstice) on the other" 
(.Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 538). " Here they are reckoned among the 
Ishmaelites ; elsewhere they are distinguished from, them" 
(Ibid). Here the Israelites " vex the Midianites," and then 
" smite them " (lum. xxv, 17). Having overcome the Midian- 
ites, and returned with their spoil, " Moses came forth to meet 
them without the camp " (spring equinox, when Aquarius rises 
before the Sun). Seeing the children of Israel returning with 
all their prisoners still alive, "Moses was wroth (broke forth, 
in the original, i. e., Aquarius rose before the Sun) with the 
officers, because they had saved " all the women alive." 
" Now, therefore (said he), kill every male among the little 
ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying 
with him; but all the women children that have not known 
man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves" (Num. 
xxxi, IT, 18). Taken literally, this relation is more cold- 
blooded, cruel, ferocious and inhuman, than anything I have 
ever read of outside of the Bible ; for in the Bible there is 
much nearly equal to this. 

But I have signified my disbelief of this legend, taken liter- 
ally. How, then, may we get at its true sense? I find, in 
mythology, " the days of the year called cattle " (Cox's Myth. 
of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii, pp. 39, 280). Of course, this 
term " cattle " would embrace both sexes. Now, why not call 
them men, women and children, as well ? Groups of five days 
each, have been personified as men (see Sanhedrim), why not 
days, hours, minutes, seconds, or any division of time, be per- 
sonified the same ? Granting that such may be done, I think 
we may get at the meaning of this myth. 

The winter days, being unproductive, will represent the 
males, which, with the summer days (the females) of the past 
year — these last having lain with man (the earth) — are slain 
at the end of the year, at the spring equinox. The coming 
summer days, with their divisions, will personate the girls who 
have not known man (earth) by lying with him. These the 



Israel's wanderings. 225 

Israelites very properly kept for their use.* This interpreta- 
tion modifies materially the criminality involved by the literal 
text, but does not excuse, or palliate the gross turpitude of the 
laiiiniaire used. 



*& ii "&' 



Death of Moses. 



After the children of Israel had avenged themselves of the 
Midianites, and captured their young virgins for future use, 
Moses was " gathered unto his people " (Num. xxxi, 2), i. e., 
leaving the Sun, " he went and returned, and dwelt " with the 
Sun — he completed the circle of the zodiac, or year. Having 
thus looked upon the promised land (summer), Moses died, and 
buried himself in a valley in the land of Moab (water-father = 
Aquarius= Moses), " but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto 
this day " (Deut. xxxiv, 6). After this day, January 10th, 
1876, his place of sepulcher will be made known ! Although 
one hundred and twenty years old, " his eye," it is said, " was 
not dim (his stars shine as brightly now as they did then), nor 
his natural force abated (the rainy season still comes on every 
year) " However, the people wept thirty days, i. e., during 
the passage of the Sun through Aquarius, the Wash-pot 
(Ps lx, 8), or the rainy month. 

Nor must we forget that Michael (who is like a ram) con- 
tended with the Devil about Moses' body, each claiming it for 
his, i. e., it was not yet exactly known whether the winter 
solstice was in Aquarius or Capricorn. It had probably ceased 
to be found in Aquarius, but could not be said to have entered 
Capricorn. However, " Michael durst not bring a railing- 
accusation against him (the Devil = winter solstice)," but said, 
" the Lord rebuke thee " ( Jude ix). The Greek, here translated 
" rebuke," is a-tri/j^vai, to set a value upon, i. e., the Sun 
(Lord) in his northern solstice will fix the southern solstice, 
which is exactly opposite. 

"And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto 
Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face " (Deut. xxxiv, 10). 

* Virgo, coming in conjunction with the earth, sets, while Andromeda rises, and thus 
knows not man (earth) by lying with him. Dupuis says: " Andromide porte cher les He- 
brews, le nom de Vierge ou du femme, qui n'a pas connu d'homme " (Origine des Cultes, 
torn, iii, pt. ii, p. 87). 

15 



226 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

The two solstices always face each other ; and Aquarius is the 
only man in the zodiac. 

Since the winter solstice ceased to be found in Aquarius, it 
has been removed by the precession of the equinoxes, into the 
15° of Sagittarius, or about 45° distant from the first degree of 
Aquarius. This 45° divided by 50" gives 3,240 years, almost 
exactly the same as found by the marginal chronology of the 
Bible, for 1451+1876=3327; the excess being only eighty- 
seven years. 

I shall now pass to the Book of Joshua, leaving the balance 
of the Pentateuch, and particularly that of Deuteronomy 
(double-naming="a repetition of former things"), for my 
readers to divine the sense of for themselves. This they will 
readily do, provided they are well grounded in what I have 
already written. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

JOSHUA. 

THE Book of Joshua "is a distinct whole in itself." 
{Smith'' s Bib. Diet., Art. Booh of Joshua.) 

In this sentiment I fully concur; particularly as regards 
the first twelve chapters. Its object appears to be the recon- 
struction of the calendar, made necessary by the removal of 
the solstices from Aquarius and Leo into Capricorn and Can- 
cer, and the change of the beginning of the year from the 
winter solstice to the spring equinox. The various divisions 
of the year will, of course, remain precisely as before, though 
answering to different constellations in the zodiac. " Joshua's 
name appears in the various forms of Hoshea, Oshea, Jehoshua, 
Joshua, and Jesus " {Bib. Diet., Art. Joshua), to which I will 
add Maimers, Majors, Mars, March ; Ares, Aries— :a Ham, 
the constellation then corresponding to the month March, the 
first month of the year, because the Sun then rose in conjunc- 
tion with Aries on the equinoctial line. 

Joshua, like Mars, was the son (Sun) of strife (Midian). 
He was also, like Mars, the " God of battles." He was the 
son of Nun, i. e., of the Fish=the Whale, whose head is 
immediately under the Ram ; or, he was the son of the Fishes 
(Pisces), as, having passed this constellation, he would be very 
aptly styled the Sun of, or from the Fishes. He was born 
about the time when Moses fled into Midian, i. e., when 
Aquarius was coming to the equinoctial line toward spring. 
He grew up a captive in the brick-fields of Egypt (muddy 
season, or the three months between the winter solstice and 
the spring equinox, the period during which Moses' mother 
was able to conceal her son), where he saw the ten plagues. 

At the death of Moses, i. e., when the winter solstice had 



228 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

passed from Aquarius into Capricorn, Aries was below the 
equinoctial line in the lower or winter hemisphere, or Egypt. 
The Lord (Sun in Capricorn at the winter solstice) spake unto 
Joshua (Aries on his meridian), saying: "Arise, go over this 
Jordan (equinox of spring) unto the land (summer) which I do 
give to them, even to the children of Israel " (Josh, i, 2). 
This land (summer) extended from the wilderness (the inter- 
calary, or spoken-in days), and from Lebanon (winter) even 
unto the great river Euphrates (the fruit season = on r autumn), 
toward the going-down of the sun " (Josh, i, 4), i. e., it em- 
braced the seven summer months from March to September, 
inclusive 

So Joshua (Aries passing his meridian) commanded the 
people (they having first prepared victuals), saying, " Within 
three days (three months) ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go 
in to possess the land which the Lord your God (Sun in Aries) 
giveth you to possess it" (Josh, i, 11). 

The Reubenites (sons of Aquarius), Gadites (sons of Capri- 
corn), and the half tribe of Manasseh (half of Pisces), being 
the exact half of the five winter months, were ordered to let 
" their wives, children, cattle," etc. (i. e., the kind of weather 
peculiar to these constellations when the sun is passing through 
them), "remain in the land which Moses gave them on this 
side Jordan (i. e., on the winter side of the year) ; but ye shall 
pass before your brethren (the summer constellations) and' help 
tliem " (Josh, i, 14), i. e., the winter constellations must pass 
over the equinoctial line before those of summer can follow 
(see Zodiac). They all answered Joshua (Aries) saying : 
" whithersoever thou sendest us, we w r ill go " (v. 16). Capri- 
corn, Aquarius and Pisces being ahead, are sent along by 
Aries. All were exhorted to " be strong and of a good 
courage." 

Preparatory to this march, Joshua sent out . of Shittim 
(winter) two men (days) to spy out the land, even Jericho (the 
lunar month). These men went directly into a "harlot's 
house" (our Savior's mother= Virgo ; for it was right here, on 
the 25th of- March, that the Virgin Mary conceived of the 
Holy Ghost, or March wind). This "harlot's" name was 



JOSHUA. 229 

Rahab (freedom of the Lord). Being discovered, they first 
provided for the "harlot's" safety, and then returned from 
the mountain (spring equinox) to Joshua. The necessary 
information being thus obtained, Joshua rose up early in the 
morning, removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan (the 
spring equinox). Here they lodged before passing over (Josh, 
iii, 1). Joshua next ordered the priests (the twelve constella- 
tions) to take up the covenant, i. e., to begin crossing; when 
the Lord said to Joshua (Sun in Aries) : " This (equinoctial) 
day will I begin to magnify thee (i. e., to make the days longer 
than the nights), in the sight of all Israel (i. e., of the four 
ancient summer constellations — Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, — 
called Israel, which, being exactly opposite, w T ere supposed to 
see the spring equinox), that they may know that as I was 
with Moses, so will I be with thee " — the beginning of the year 
(Josh, iii, 7). As the priests severally came to the Jordan 
(spring equinox), "Joshua said : Hereby ye shall know that 
the living (summer) God (El ehi — not the dead God of win- 
ter) is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from 
before you the Canaanites," etc., i. e., that winter will pass 
away (v. 10). 

When the priests (the constellations all appear to move in 
concert) that bore the ark of the covenant (the spring equinox) 
came to Jordan, "the waters which came down from above 
(the latter rain) rose up upon a heap (ned, nud, or Nod, the 
place where Cain found his wife = Yirgo) very far from the 
city of Adam that is beside Zaretan (Earth in winter), while 
those of the plain (the former rain) failed, and the people 
passed over against Jericho" (Josh, iii, 16); i. e., the former 
and latter rains occur before and after (not at) the spring equi- 
nox, and thus the priests that bare the ark (of Aries) stood firm 
on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, until the people were 
pasted clean over Jordan (iii. 17). 

By direction of the Lord, Joshua next ordered the children 
of Israel to take twelve stones (symbolic of the twelve months) 
out of the midst of Jordan, and carry them to the place, cr 
places where they severally lodged (iv, 8). These twelve stones 
Joshua set up in the midst of Jordan in Gilgal (Sun's ecliptic) 



2-°>0 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

" in the places where the priests' feet stood, and they are there 
unto this day " (iv, 9), and I will add — unto this day, January 
10, 1876. After this, the people came up on the tenth day of 
the first month and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of 
Jericho, i. e., at the end of the first third of the first month 
(iv, 19). 

Here Joshua, the year of survey being ended, performed 
the rite of circumcision. This was done with sharp stones, 
the twelve he had just set up in Gilgal, or the Sun's ecliptic. 
The word circumcision means to cut around, or to encircle; 
and as Joshua had just completed the circle of the year, set up 
his land-marks, or the twelve stones, and thus, having arrived 
at the love-season of spring, had rolled away the reproach of 
Egypt (the barren and unprofitable winter), it was now proper 
and even necessary to institute some rite or ceremony in token 
of the covenant, or coming-together. Hence the erected pole 
qy phallus, the emblem of the fecundating power of the Sun 
at this season, was, by this rite, represented with denuded apex 
or glans, as if in readiness to commit its seed into the fertiliz- 
ing womb of the naked earth (see the seventeenth of Dupuis' 
Plates illustrative of the Origin of all Worship). This same 
rite was, as we have seen, enjoined upon Abraham in token of 
this same covenant, or spring season of the year. Moses, not 
representing spring, was regardless of this rite being " of un- 
circumcised lips " (Ex. vi, 12). It was right here, too, as on a 
former occasion (Ex. xii, 18) the children of Israel ate unleav- 
ened bread, i. e., bread made of old corn (Josh, v, 11), and the 
manna (what-is-it ?) ceased on the morrow (the next month, 
which was that of the harvest). 

Joshua (Aries) having thus arrived by Jericho, found a man 
(the Sun) before him with a drawn sword in his hand. He 
asked the man (Sun) if " he was for, or against him." The 
man replied, " Nay, but as captain (head or first) of the Lord's 
host (the seven summer months) am I now come" (v, 14). 
The captain (Sun) told Joshua (Aries) to take his shoe off; for, 
8nid he, " the place whereon thou standest is holy," i. e., sunny, 
or warm, and it is time to go barefoot ! It is now spring, and 
Joshua begins his campaign, his first battle being against 
Jericho. 



JOSHUA. 231 



Battle of Jericho (Lunar Month.) 

Joshua, having obtained all necessary information by means 
of his two spies (the two days to be added to each of the 
twelve lunar months), and having staked off, by the twelve 
stones, the Sun's ecliptic into as many equal parts, and taken 
every other precaution necessary to insure success, was now 
prepared for his ensuing campaign. His first battle was 
against Jericho. This is a collective name, having for its root, 
jerah = the moon. Jericho may, therefore, mean the four 
quarters of the moon, or the four weeks of the lunar month. 

The two spies, as before noted, went to Rahab, who 
received and lodged them. Rahab, who personifies the fornix, 
or the great vault of heaven, is thus said to commit fornica- 
tion, and so gets her surname of harlot. 

But Jericho was straitly shut : " none went out, and none 
came in" (vi, 1). The Lord (Sun) however, gave it into Josh- 
ua's hands. Seven priests (seven summer constellations) were 
appointed to bear as many trumpets of rams' horns (Aries 
during each of these seven months) about the devoted city 
(lunar month). These rams' horns the priests tooted about 
the city every day (month) for six days (months). On the 
seventh day (month) they compassed the city seven times, 
tooting their rams' horns as they went, i. e., they recalled all 
the summer months to view (feast of tabernacles, or of the 
ingathering) in that one month, when the city (summer) fell 
down flat, and the people at the command of Joshua, shouted 
" Amen (Oh, Ram), glory to the Ram]* as he w r ent down in 
the west. 

All that was in the city was utterly destroyed, save Rahab 
(or Virgo, which became a day constellation), whom notwith- 
standing her slip of chastity, Joshua saved alive with all her 
household, and all that she had, and she dwelleth in Israel 
(i. e., she is one of the four constellations of summer) unto this 
day (vi, 25). Thus perished Jericho, or the lunar month, and 
the calendar month of 30 days being firmly established, the 
year consisted of 360 days. 



2;j2 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



Battle of Ai. 



Joshua next pitched his forces against Ai (the Heap=the 
Year). Having sent men from Jericho to view Ai, which is 
beside Beth-aven (house-of-nothingness=the supposed vacancy 
between the two ends of the year) on the east of Beth-el (i. e., 
next the first degree of Aries), Joshua, by the advice received 
from them on their return, sent only " three thousand men 
(representing the supposed three intercalary days) up thither ; 
and they fled before the men (days) of Ai " (vii, 4). Such 
was the consequence of " the transgression of my covenant " 
(spring equinox), or of the mistake of the children of Israel 
u in the accursed thing " (eherem=ihe shut-up, or hidden thing 
=the unknown number of intercalary days). Joshua was thus 
badly beaten ; for the men of Ai smote of them about " thirty 
and six men " (vii, 5), equal to the 36 decans of the year, or 
the year itself, and chased them from the gate (spring equinox ) 
even unto Shebarim (fractions), i. e., from the beginning of the 
year to where the intercalary days are counted in. 

This was a hard blow for Joshua. He fell upon his face 
(Aries sets head first) before the ark of the Lord (summer) 
until eventide (winter solstice), and cried and took on until the 
Lord ordered him to get up: " Up,, said the Lord (Sun), to 
Joshua (Aries on his meridian at the winter solstice). " So 
Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought up Israel by 
their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken (Sun in Leo). 
Search being made in this tribe, it was soon found that Achan 
{trouble) the son of Carmi (vine-dresser = spring), the son of 
Zabdi (giver), the son of Zerah (riser = spring) was the trouble. 
Achan, on being interviewed, and exhorted to confession, 
owned up, and said : " When I saw among the spoils a goodly 
Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge 
of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I. coveted them and took 
them ; and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of 
my tent, and the silver under it " (vii, 21). 

Here, reader ; here are some nuts for us to crack. I remark, 
first, that 200 silver shekels would be worth about $125 ; the 
50 gold shekels, about $425 — in all about $550, more or less. 



joshua. 233 

The value of the Babylonish garment is not quite so easily 
come at. Is it possible, then,' that so paltry a theft was like 
to ruin an army of 600,000 lighting men ? Who believes it I 
Thefts of ten thousand times this amount did not ruin the 
cause of our Union in the late war of the rebellion ; and yet 
the theft of $550, unless the thief were discovered and pun- 
ished, would ruin the Jewish nation (?), the chosen of God — 
was of the greatest moment, and of such astounding magnitude 
as to bring disaster and defeat upon the Israelitish army while 
under command of the Lord-God — was of such gravity that 
in order to prevent the ruin of the Almighty, the poor, weak- 
minded offender must be sought out at all hazards, and made 
to undergo capital punishment ! 

I can't see it ; and must hence resort to what may be 
deemed its esoteric or hidden meaning. Gold with the ancients 
was symbolic of the Sun ; silver of the Moon. The words 
" adereth shinar" translated - 4 Babylonish garment" literally 
mean " shining boy-Suri" =the new year Sun = the Ganymede, 
or joy-bringer of the Grecians. The Hebrew adereth is of the 
feminine gender, and I note that the boy Ganymede, as pic- 
tured in Bell's Pantheon .and Keightley's Mythology, has an 
exceedingly feminine look. Indeed, the gender of this little 
joy-bringing God, or Goddess (Sun at the spring equinox, for 
adereth is the feminine of Adar, the name of the Hebrew 
month which embraced the last half of February and the first 
half of March), seems doubtful. He, or she is always pictured 
standing beside the Eagle, a northern extra-zodiacal constella- 
tion, on whose wings the Lord brought the children of Israel 
up out of Egypt (winter) (Ex. xix, 4). 

Now let us compare notes with the text. Joshua, having 
found Achan (the troubler=the annual intercalation) just where 
the Lord (Sun) said he would find him ( u in the midst of thee, 
O Israel " — vii, 13), and recovered the stolen goods, viz. : the 
50 shekels of gold (the day for the Sun's house, or the constel- 
lation Leo) and the 200 shekels of silver (the remaining four 
intercalary days — one day for each 50 shekels), and "the 
goodly Babylonish garment " (the fourth part of a day, since 
the Sun had passed from the spring equinox to the summer 



234 THE SCIENCE OE THE BLBLE. 

solstice=a fourth of the circle), took them with Achan and all 
his sons, daughters, etc., to the valley of Achor (the end of the 
year, the place of intercalation), where " all Israel stoned them 
with stones and burned them with fire (the Sun) after they had 
stoned them with stones" (vii, 25). Having done this, "they 
raised over him a heap of stones unto this day," marking the 
end of the year, and called the place " the valley of Achor (or 
place of intercalation) unto this day " (vii, 26). 

Thus was found the true amount of intercalation to be 
added to the 360 days conquered in the first battle of Joshua 
with Jericho. This made Joshua's year to correspond to ours 
as to the number of days. 

Joshua's Third Battle. 

We left Joshua in the valley of Achor at the end of his 
second battle, i. e., at the spring equinox. Here the Lord 
again told Joshua (Sun in Aries) he had given Ai (the year) 
into his hands (viii, 1). So Joshua arose with his army and 
went to Ai, i. e., he passed over the circle of the year, and 
camped between Beth-el and Ai, the beginning and ending of 
the year, which are never very far apart. His camp was on the 
west side of Ai, however (viii, 9), and, of course, next to Beth- 
el. Thus Joshua had learned the exact amount of force neces- 
sary to success. So next morning he rose up and numbered 
his people ; after which he pitched on the north side of Ai (the 
Sun had just entered the northern hemisphere). Joshua now 
took about, not exactly, but about, 5,000 men (the intercalary 
period) and placed them between Beth-el and Ai, on the west 
side of the city, i. e., at the end of the 360 days — the old place 
of intercalation (viii, 12). The description is very exact. Now 
there was a valley between them and Ai, i. e., between the 
main army (the Sun) and Ai (viii, 11) — referring to winter. 
Into the midst of this valley Joshua went that night (winter), 
i. e., Aries came to his meridian. Of course, the men of Ai 
(the days of the last fourth of the year) went out to call Israel 
to battle. But they "wist not of the liers in ambush." 
Joshua and Israel went on as though beaten, fleeing by the 



JOSHUA. 235 

way of the wilderness (viii, 15). The Aiites pursued, but were 
easily captured by the 5,000 in ambush, in the wilderness ; not 
a man of them being left either in Ai or Beth-el (viii, 17). 
Joshua now, by the direction of the Lord, stretched forth the 
spear (the Sun) he held in his hand (Sun in Aries), and the 
devoted city was captured, i. e., the year ended. Joshua next 
burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, a desolation unto this 
day — that year being totally annihilated. Its king (the Sun) 
he hanged on a tree (the last day of the year) until eventide 
(the end of the last minute) when he cast the carcass (the old 
years Sun) at the entering of the gate (spring equinox) of the 
city = the beginning of the following year. 

Joshua next re-wrote the law of Moses in the presence of 
the children of Israel (the Sun being in Aries), who stood on 
both sides of the ark of the covenant (spring equinox) — half 
over against mount G-erizim (dividing), and half over against 
mount Ebal (stripping), i. e., half were below, and half above 
the equinoctial line. To these, summer and winter, Joshua 
read the " blessings and the cursings according to all that is 
written in the book of the law (viii, 34) — the blessings went 
to the summer ; the cursings, to the winter side of the year. 

Episode of the Gibeonites. 

In chap, ix, we are told the Gibeonites (summer people = 
the laborers) combined against Israel (the nabobs). They 
came to Joshua with their old sacks, old rent, and bound-up 
wine bottles, old shoes and clouted, and mouldy bread (emblems 
under which the nabobs of every age and country have ever 
delighted to represent the working classes), and made as if 
they were ambassadors from a far off country. The Israelites, 
before they were aware of their true character, " made peace 
with them, and made a league with them, to let them live" 
(ix, 15). This was noble — magnanimous! The Israelites 
agreed " to let them live ! ! " Why, they were more liberal 
than our princes — millionaires — of to-day. They, the 
Israelites, let the Gibeonites — laborers — live, which can 
scarcely be said of our princes ! Three days after, the Israel- 



286 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ites learned the true character of the Gibeonites, i. e., " they 
heard (they only knew by hearsay) they were their neighbors, 
and dwelt among them " (ix, 16). How characteristic and how 
true ! — it is human nature all over. The rich now-a-days 
scarcely know that they have any poor among them — not till 
they are obliged to contribute to their support, or rather, to 
give back a part of what they have stolen from them. How- 
ever, the Israelites, finding they were in for it, " slew them 
not " (ix, 26), but cursed them (what a mercy ! — what noble- 
ness of mind !). The Gibeonites had never injured the Israel- 
ites ; they had only struck for higher wages. For this they 
were enslaved (made bondsmen, I should rather say, for the 
Bible don't sanction slavery) — made hewers of wood and 
drawers of water for the congregation (for the rich, who. sit in 
fine churches) and for the altar of the Lord (the priest) even 
unto this day " (ix, 27). 

Joshua's Fourth Battle. 

An account of this fourth battle is found in chapter x. It 
was had against \\\.q five kings (the rive intercalary days) of the 
Amorites (the intercalary period), who had rebelled against 
Joshua. They gathered themselves together and encamped 
before Gibeon (summer Sun), i. e., they were the last five days 
of the year (x, 5). They made war against Gribeon, because 
it took the Sun five days longer to reach Gribeon, or the spring 
equinox. Joshua, at the request of the Gibeonites, hurried up 
over these five days to Gilgal (the end of the year, or spring 
equinox) to their aid. Here the Lord (Sun) said unto Joshua 
(Aries), "fear them not, for I have delivered them into thy 
hand" (10, 8), i. e., the Sun, having passed over the intercalary 
space, had entered Aries. Joshua, therefore, or because of this 
conjunction, went up from Gilgal all night and came upon 
them suddenly (x, 9). " And thus the Lord discomfited them 
before Israel (the four constellations, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scor- 
pio, exactly opposite or before the spring equinox), and slew 
them with a great slaughter at Gibeon (spring equinox), and 
chased them along the way (ecliptic) that goeth up to Beth- 



.Joshua. 237 

horon (the upper) = the summer hemisphere, "and smote them 
to Azekah (^the breach or intercalary space), and unto Makke- 
dah "=the spotting-place, where Jacob, by his incantations, 
turned all Laban's cattle into " ringstraked, spotted, and 
speckled," and then claimed them for his own = spring equi- 
nox. Thus discomfited and smitten, they fled, and as they 
went down to Beth-horon (the nether), the Lord (atmosphere) 
cast down great (hail) stones upon them and they died. These 
five kings, then, some slain by the sword, but more by the hail, 
were, of course, all dead. Thus, Joshua, having captured Jericho 
(the lunar month), Ai (the year), and the five Amorite kings 
(five intercalary days), had erected the common year of 365 
days. But this was his fourth battle or year, and the bissextile 
or leap-year day was still wanting to complete his calendar. 
He must have one more day. Hence: "Then spake Joshua 
(Aries) to the Lord (Sun) in the day when the Lord delivered up 
the Amorites (intercalary days) before the children of Israel, and 
he said in the sight of Israel, SUN ! stand thou still upon (or 
at) Gibeon (the spring equinox), and thou Moon, in the valley 
of Ajalon (Sun in Aries). So the Sun stood still in the midst 
of heaven, and hasted not to go. down about a whole day. And 
there was no day like that before it, or after it " (x, 10-14). 
" Is not this written in the book of Jasher ?" — the upright — 
the spring equinox ? Of course it is ! 

Here Joshua's labors and battles would have ended but for 
the five pesky kings. They would resuscitate, come to life 
.again, and flee and hide themselves in the cave of Makkedah 
every spring. This wouldn't do ; they must be otherwise dis- 
posed of. So Joshua, on learning that the five kings were hid 
in the cave at Makkedah, ordered great stones to be rolled over 
its mouth, and men set by it to keep them (x, 18). This done, 
Joshua ordered his men forward in pursuit of his enemies, 
with directions "to smite the hindmost of them" (x, 19). 
This was sensible. Of course they could do no otherwise — 
to-morrow must come before next day. "And it came to pass 
(of course it did), when he had made an end of slaying them 
with great slaughter till they were consumed, that the rest 
entered into fenced cities " (x, 20). 



238 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Indeed, these must have been strange people who would 
not stay dead after having been slain, burnt and consumed so 
many times ; but yet managed to " enter into fenced cities? 
However, "all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at 
Makkedah in peace : none moved his tongue against any of 
the children of Israel " (x, 21). 

At verse 22, Joshua orders " those five kings " to be 
brought out: the king of Jerusalem (summer solstice), the 
king of Hebron (equinox), the king of Jarmuth (winter sol- 
stice), the king of Lachish (the smitten-October), and the king 
of Eglon (the returning Sun of spring). This done, he orders 
his captains (the months) to put their feet upon those kings' 
necks, i. e., he distributes the five intercalary days over the 
year, which, of course, would aiford them much satisfaction. 
Next, Joshua again smote them, and slew them, and hanged 
them on five trees (months). Here he let them remain until 
the evening, i. e., until the end of the year, when they were 
again cast into the cave and guarded as before. And thus has 
this ordering out, smiting and slaying of those five kings 
recurred year after year, during the whole of Joshua's admin- 
istration, and even unto our own day. 

Again : from verse 28 to verse 29 inclusive, Joshua again 
fights his battles of the year, for the purpose, probably, of try- 
ing his new arrangement. His passage over the ecliptic is 
indicated by the names : Makkedah (spring equinox) Libnah 
(white= summer), Lachish (difficult to conquer=the first half of 
winter) and Eglon (returning-sun=last half of winter). All 
this is summed up or recapitulated in verse 40 : " So Joshua 
smote all the country of the (seven) hills, and of the south, and 
of the vale (winter), and of the springs (the former and latter 
rains) and all their kings," etc. (x, 34). " And Joshua re- 
turned and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal," i. e., 
when the Sun comes to the equinox of spring, all the zodiacal 
constellations are in their normal positions — the summer por- 
tion of them being on one side of the equator, and the winter 
portion on the other. 



joshua. 239 



Joshua's Horse Story. 



This is found in chapter xi. Jabin (he that sees God — 
earth in Aries), king of Hazor (inclosed), on hearing what 
Joshua had done, sent to Jobab (howler= winter Sun) king of 
Madon (winter), and to two other kings; the three represent- 
ing the three seasons of the ancient year. He also sent to the 
kings on the north of the mountains (summer), and to the 
kings of the plains, on the south of Chinneroth (the constella- 
tion of the Lyra); in the valley in the borders of Dor (circle, or 
the ecliptic), on the west, etc. All these kings met at the 
waters of Merom (high place), the latter rain, to fight against 
Israel. The Lord told Joshua (Sun in Aries), not to fear, " for 
to-morrow about this time (fall equinox) will I deliver them up 
all. slain before Israel : thou shalt hough their horses, and burn 
their chariots with fire" (xi, 6). 

In this myth, we find the Sun in Aries, with all the con- 
stellations of the season, particularly of the Lyra (Chinneroth) 
in its zenith at sunrise, with Pisces, the last of the four winter 
constellations, just above the horizon, and Sagittarius, the first 
of the winter constellations, just past his zenith going west. 
Then as Aries moves over the upper hemisphere during the 
summer months, the winter constellations will have exchanged 
places w r ith them, and as the horses (Sagittarius) set during 
this time, heels first, they are houghed. Meanwhile the Sun 
has burnt their chariots, the summer months, with fire. And 
as for these cities that stood still in their strength (winter 
months) Israel burnt none of them — "save Hazor (September, 
as inclosed with the six summer months) only ; that did Joshua 
burn " (x, 13). Nevertheless, he took all the cities (months) 
of the circle (year) ; not a city made peace with Joshua save 
the Hivites, or Gibeonites, as related in chapter ix. These all 
are ever ready to make peace with, for it is by them (the labor- 
ers) we all live. 

Joshua even cut off the Anakim {long necks=the larger 
divisions of the ecliptic as they relate to the months or seasons). 
However, he spared those of Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, Philis- 



240 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

tine cities, or winter months. These Joshua (Aries disjoined 
from the Sun) could not burn. " So Joshua took the whole 
land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses (the in- 
heritances of the nine tribes and a half), and Joshua gave it 
for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions, by 
their tribes. And the land rested from war (xi, 23)." This 
rest answers to God's rest after the creation. 

In chapter xii, we have a recapitulation of the conquests 
of Israel, followed in the succeeding chapter, by a description 
of the lands not yet conquered. These (the space between the 
winter solstice and the spring equinox = the old and the new 
beginnings of the year) last were long before disposed of by 
Moses (Num. xxxii, 33) to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the 
half tribe of Manasseh. 

The inheritance of the remaining nine tribes and a half, 
consisting of the conquests of Joshua aforesaid, was disposed 
of by lot (xiv. 2), each, of course, receiving its appropriate 
share. The description of this disposition, long and tedious, I 
shall not stop to analyze; but will leave it for the curious 
reader, who, if he has studied faithfully what precedes, and has 
the necessary facilities at hand, can readily solve it for himself. 
Whether they are solved at all or not matters little. It is 
enough for my purpose to add, that Joshua set off to each tribe 
its allotted share, and sent every man to his inheritance (xxv, 28). 

Being now " old and well stricken in years," Joshua died, 
aged 110 years, and was buried on the north side of the hill of 
Gaash (spring equinox). The bones of Joseph which the chil- 
dren of Israel had toted about with them over 200 years, were 
here buried in Shechem (harvest time). They were nothing 
but the remnants of the last year's crop. 

Thus Joshua's calendar was made to consist of 365^ days, 
a little too much, but the overplus will be disposed of in Ahaz's 
dial (2 Kings xx, 11). 



CHAPTER XIV. 

JUDGES. 

THE calendar thus reconstructed according to the new 
order of things, the unknown compiler proceeds accord- 
ingly. The rulers of the people (the year) are now called 
Judges ; hence the name of this book. The root of the He- 
brew word translated "judges," means " to divide, to split off, 
to separate."* The term judges, then, means dividers, and 
amounts to the same as the Elohim of the Creation, i. e., the 
Sun under any of the names of these judges, divides the year 
into seasons, months, weeks and days. 

Now, as the children of Israel (Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio) 
did evil in the sight of the Lord every year, it became neces- 
sary, notwithstanding the Lord's anger was hot against Israel 
(the hot weather of the four months answering to the four signs 
above named), for him to raise up judges (the Suns of spring) 
to deliver them out of the hands of those (the winter months) 
that spoiled them (ii, 16). 

Hence, whenever these wayward Israelites transgressed 
the Lord's covenant (fall equinox), and went down into Egypt 
(winter) to serve Baalim (the winter Suns), it pleased the Lord 
to raise up judges : "And when the Lord (spring) raised them 
up judges, then the Lord was with the judge (the Sun), and 
delivered them out of the hand of their enemies (winter 
months) all the days of the judge," i. e., during the summer 
(ii, 18). But when the judge died, as he did at the end of every 
summer, then they (the Israelites) returned and again corrupted 
themselves (i. e., descended into the winter hemisphere), and 
ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn 
way (ii, 19). Consequently, the Lord left those nations, which 

* See FuersVs Heb. Lex., p. 1429. 
16 



242 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

lie delivered not into the hand of Joshua, and did not drive 
them out hastily (ii, 23), but left them to prove (purify) Israel 
(iii, 1), as winter purities summer. These nations were the 
rive lords of the Philistines (iii, 3), or the five winter months. 

Judah. 

After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel were again 
in want of a leader. The Lord, however, at their solicitation, 
appointed Judah (Leo = the first of the summer constellations) 
to go up for them against the Canaanites (the constellations 
setting in the west). Judah, not deeming himself equal to 
the whole work, called Simeon (Pisces) to his aid. " Come up 
with me," said Judah to Simeon, " unto my lot, that we may 
light the Canaanites, and I likewise will go with thee into thy 
lot " (i, 3). Thus Judah (Leo), starting from the summer sol- 
stice, moves forward as the leader, and all the other constella- 
tions follow: "and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the 
Perizzites (Canaanites, but of the rustic class, according to 
Gesenius) into their hands ; and they slew of them in Bezek 
(lightnings summer), ten thousand men " (i, 4). " But Adoni- 
bezek (Sun of summer) fled ; and they pursued after him, 
and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and great toes (i, 6), 
and brought him to Jerusalem (the spring equinox, or end of 
the year), where he died " (i, 7). The thumbs and great toes 
probably refer to the extremes of the year, which Judah and 
Simeon had compassed and overcome. Some, as Dr. Inman 
{Ancient Faiths, vol. i, p. 90), would say the thumb typifies 
the virile member, which would in this case (the season being 
spring) convey the same meaning. 

However, Adoni-bezek, before he died, acknowledged the 
justice of his punishment, as he had, during the year, taken 
three score and ten kings (the Sanhedrim) whom he served in 
like manner (i, T). 

In Jud. i, 9, 10, " Judah went doivn to fight the Canaanites 
that dwelt in the mountains (spring) and in the south-land 
(summer), and in the valley (winter) ; also those that dwelt in 
Hebron (the Sun's ecliptic, or Kirjath-arba=the four cardinal 



JUDGES. 243 

points); and they slew Sheshai (white=winter), Ahiman 
(brother-of-a-gift = spring), and Talmai (summer), i. e., the three 
seasons, or the year of 360 days, as we shall soon see. 

Having conquered the year as above, Judah next went 
against Debir (from dabar, to speak = the spot where the people 
spake against Moses = the live intercalary days), whose former 
name was Kirjath-sepher (Book-city). Another alias was 
Kirjath-sannah (Thorn-city), where our Savior received his 
crown of thorns. This was always a formidable city, which 
occasioned much hard fighting and loss of life. Of course, for 
this taken, the year ended. The people under Moses, 
mutinied before it (Ex. xxxii), but were with much ado brought 
again into subjection. Under Joshua, it took one defeat and 
much hard fighting afterward to subdue it ; and now, in the 
time of the Judges, its capture was deemed of such great im- 
portance, that Caleb (a dog = the constellation Cam's, which 
rises with Cancer), offered his only daughter Achsah (anklet) 
to him who would take it, for his wife. Accordingly, 

Othniel (Lion- ram), 

The son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it. Caleb 
did as he had agreed, and gave him his daughter Achsah to 
wife. Now let us analyze a little. Othniel is literally Lion- 
ram, and is made up of the names of the constellations Leo 
and Aries. These, the Sun being in Leo, and Aries in his 
zenith, represent midsummer, and are the same with Judah. 
Othniel is the son of Kenaz (the Hunter = Sagittarius, the first 
of the months which represent winter = the hunting season. 
Summer follows winter, and is hence the son of winter — of 
Kenaz. We may notice further, that these constellations (Leo, 
Sagittarius and Aries) are equidistant in the zodiac as regards 
one another, and thus answer to the three seasons of the ancient 
year. Now, when the Sun is about to enter Aries, Virgo sets 
with her ankles just above the horizon, and thus gets the 
name Achsah = anklet. Thus, too, is she the princess Cinder- 
ella with the glass slipper ; the Sun being the prince in pur- 
suit of her. Again, when Aries is near setting in the west, 



244 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. ■ 

Yirgo has risen in conjunction with the Sun, her ankles beino- 
again in the horizon. In this position the prince, the Sun, has 
overtaken Cinderella, and thus she (Achsah) becomes Othniel's 
wife. Othniel (Lion-ram) makes another half circuit, at the 
request of Achsah, and she obtains a field (the summer hem- 
isphere) of her father (Caleb=Canis, the Dog). At this junct- 
ure (Yirgo setting) Achsah alighted from her ass, when her 
father, Caleb, asked : " What wilt thou ( " She replied : " Thou 
hast given me a south-land (Yirgo was then a night constella- 
tion), give me also springs of water." And Caleb gave her 
" the upper springs and the nether springs " (i, 15). 

Here is a beautiful riddle for us to unriddle. Aries, Leo and 
Sagittarius, according to the astrologists, are of the fiery tri- 
plicity, hence the request for water. Xow, while Yirgo is set- 
ting (going to the south-land her father had just given her), 
Caleb (the Dog) comes to his meridian with Gemini. Canis 
being in quartile aspect with Yirgo, she is in her father's pres- 
ence, who, having granted her suit, proceeds to make it good. 
He soon brings the Sun in conjunction with Taurus, when 
the " latter rain " happens. This is the " upper springs." 
The constellations still moving forward, Caleb, followed by his 
daughter, soon gains the upper hemisphere, and the Sun comes 
in conjunction with Scorpio, when the " former rain " comes 
on. This is the " nether springs." 

Again, " the Lord was with Judah (Sun in Leo, and the 
time mid-summer), and he drave out the inhabitants of the 
mountains ; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the val- 
ley, because they had chariots of iron " (i, 19). A chariot wheel 
with the Babylonians was emblematic of the Sun, and the 
kings of Judah consecrated chariots and horses to the Sun (2 
Kings xxiii, 11). Of course, then, they may be made, by the 
material of which they are composed, to correspond to the 
temperature of the several seasons, or even months of the 
year. There can be no doubt but the language of this verse 
has reference to the heat of summer and the cold of winter ; 
the extremes between the two being by no means inconsider- 
able. "The summer heat," says Yolney, "is absolutely in- 
supportable, while the winter, which lasts from November to 



JUDGES. 245 

March, is sharp and rigorous ; in the plains, the air is more 
moderate. At Antioch, Aleppo and Damascus, there are 
several weeks of frost and snow every winter" (Travels, vol. 
i, pp. 314-15). 

In the mountains, then, during summer, the Lord (the insup- 
portable heat) drove the people into the shade, but in the val- 
ley (winter), he (the feeble Sun) could not drive them from the 
fire, for they had chariots of iron (cold weather). These were 
the people too, we must remember, that Joshua failed to con- 
quer, and the Lord said he wouldn't drive them out', but would 
leave them "for snares and traps unto you, and scourges in 
your sides, and thorns in your eyes" (Josh, xxiii, 13 ; Jud. iv, 
21). What kind of chariots the people of the mountains had, 
we are not told, but doubtless they were brazen chariots, being 
constructed of the same material as was Moses' brazen ser- 
pent! 

Jael and Sisera. 

Passing a few of the judges of Israel, whose acts were simi- 
lar to Othniel's, we come to Deborah (a bee), a prophetess, and 
wife of Lepidoth (lamps = winter months), who judged Israel 
in the time of Sisera (the stars visible in winter), i. e., during 
winter. 

" And the children of Israel again (as they did every year) 
did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud (the civil year) 
was dead " (Jud. iv, 1), i. e., when winter came on. So the 
Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin (the seeing one=Sun 
of September), king of Canaan (the fourth son of Ham = 
Scorpio), who reigned in Hazor (inclosure— zodiac), and whose 
captain was Sisera (the winter constellations), which dwelt in 
Harosheth of the gentiles (the winter months). Deborah 
meanwhile " dwelt under the palm-tree," i. e., at the end of 
summer. 

Thus we find the position of the heavens : The Sun was 
in Libra and winter was coming on, i. e., the children of Israel 
were committing evil in departing from the equator south. 
Deborah now sent for Barak (lightning, for he had departed), 
the son of Abinoam (father of pleasantness = summer) to come 



246 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

back from Kadesh-naphtali (fall equinox), asking: « Hatli not 
the Lord commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount 
Tabor ((navel or umbilicus=ihe zenith) and take with thee 
10,000 men (the ten months from September to June inclu- 
sive)? Do this, and I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon 
(bow-Sun = spring equinox), Sisera the captain of Jabin's army 
with his chariots (of iron = the winter months), and his multi- 
tude (the winter stars), and I will deliver him into thine hand " 
(v. 7). Barak promised to go, provided Deborah would go 
with him, not otherwise. " I will surely go with thee," said 
Deborah, " notwithstanding the journey shall not be for thine 
honor, for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hands of a woman " 
(v. 9). She bad just promised to give Sisera into Barak's hand 
(v. 7). So Barak (lightning) and Deborah (summer) went up 
together to mount Tabor (navel of heaven = the zenith). 

Now Heber (the spell), the Kenite (the son of Cain = win- 
ter), who was of the children of Hobab (winter months), had 
severed himself from the Kenites (winter months) and pitched 
in Zaanaim (place where they load up for removals— spring 
equinox), which is by Kedesh (summer), i. e., the Sun had left 
the winter constellations, and was about to enter Aries. 

Here it was at the spring equinox that Sisera gathered 
together his chariots of iron (the cold days of winter), in view 
of the coming battle. At this critical moment Deborah (Yirgo 
setting in the west at sunrise) exclaims : " Up, for this is the 
day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand. 
Thus the Lord discomfited Sisera (the winter array of stars) and 
his chariots (of iron) and his hosts with the edge of the sword 
(Sun in the eastern horizon) before Barak (the lightning of 
spring). Sisera lighted from his chariot and fled away on his 
feet (i. e. the winter stars were obscured by the overpowering 
rays of the Sun) to the tent of Jael (he that goes up Aries), the 
wife (because a summer constellation) of Heber the Kenite, 
(Gainite) or son of winter, " for there was peace between Jabin 
(the Sun) king of TIazor (the zodiac) and the house of Heber, 1 ' 
i. e. Aries was at the spring equinox and it was neither winter 
nor summer. 

And Jael went out to meet Sisera, i. e., summer went to 



JUDGES. 247 

meet winter, and said unto him : " Turn in, my lord, turn in to 
me ; " and he turned in, when she covered him with her man- 
tle (of daylight), the vail which hid Moses' face (Ex. xxxiv, 
33), and so hid him from sight. Becoming thirsty, and " asking 
for water, Jael gave him milk and also butter in a lordly dish " 
(v. 25). The flocks had just brought forth, and milk and but- 
ter were plenty. 

Sisera, fearful of a discovery, told Jael to stand in the tent 
door (spring equinox), and, in case he was inquired for, to say, 
there is no man here; and, covered with JaeFs mantle, went 
to sleep, not dreaming of danger. Taking advantage of his 
helpless condition, Jael seized a tent-pin (a streak of lightning) 
and a hammer (Thor's thunderbolt, — see Thorpe's Norse 
Myth., vol. i, p. 39), and smote the nail through his temples 
(the equinoxes) and pinned him to the ground.* So, of course, 
Sisera died. Barak pursued Sisera, whom he found in Jael's 
tent, dead, the nail being still in his temples (iv, 22). 

So God (Aries) subdued Jabin (the winter Sun) on that 
day (the equinoctial) before Israel (the four constellations, Leo, 
Virgo, Libra and Scorpio, exactly opposite the spring equinox). 

Gideon. 

"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the 
Lord : and the Lord (the summer Sun) delivered them into 
the hand of Midian (strifes winter) seven }^ears," i. e., seven 
months; each half year being reckoned seven months by re- 
calling and adding to them the last of the previous six months. 
"As the Hebrews had seven hells (or winter months), so had 
they likewise seven heavens" (or summer months), — Maurice's 
Ind. Antiq,, vol. iv, p. 277. f 

During the time (winter) that Midian prevailed against 
them, the children of Israel made themselves dens and caves 
and strongholds in the mountains; i. e., the summer constella- 
tions become night constellations, and were to be seen over- 

*'• Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the Lord : and like a hammer that breaketh 
the rock ?" (Jer. xxiii. 29). 

t With the Hebrews, the same month was counted twice; as the first and also as the 
seventh. (Bohn'x Philo. Jud., vol. iv, p. 374). 



248 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

head in their respective houses, dens or caves in the great vault 
after sun-down. Here thej were sadly oppressed by the Mid- 
ianites (winter da} 7 s), and the Amalekites (sons of laziness= 
winter days), who encamped against them and destroyed the 
increase of the earth, and left them no sustenance. Thus 
Israel was greatly impoverished because of these enemies. Of 
course they cried to the Lord (summer), their only resource for 
help (v. 6). 

In answer to their cry, the Lord sent a man prophet (ish 
Ttbia)— Aquarius = Moses), who recounted th*e great things the 
Lord had done for them, and exhorted them : " Fear not the 
Gods of the Amorites (the intercalary days) among whom ye 
dwell " (v. 10). Just then the angel of the Lord (Aries) came 
and sat under an oak (the arc of Aries), which was in Ophrah 
(rubbish = the fag-end of the year) that pertained to Joash, 
(summer-Sun), the Abi-ezrite (the helping-father) whose son 
Gideon (the dividing-son = the Creator) threshed wheat by the 
wine-press to hide it from Midian, i. e., to lay it up for winter. 
Wine-press is a euphemism for the season of love (see Inmarfs 
Ancient Faiths, vol. i, p. 538). The harvest month of the 
Jews, our April, was devoted to Venus (Love) by the ancient 
Latins. It w T as in spring when Adam knew Eve ; when Cain 
knew his w r ife, and when all the famous mothers of Israel con- 
ceived. It was in spring when Onan " spilled his seed upon 
the ground " (Gen. xxxviii, 9), and which is represented upon 
the Mithraic monuments by a man doing as Onan did (see 
plate 17 in Dv/puii Origine de tons les Cultes). It was in 
spring, too, that the annunciation of the Virgin was made. 

But the angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon (the Sun 
in Aries), and said : " The Lord is with thee,'' i. e., it is summer. 
Gideon, the weather being still cool, thought it strange, and 
asked, "why then is all this befallen us?" (6, 13). The Lord 
looked upon Gideon and said : " Go and save Israel from Mid- 
ian." Gideon asked how ; " for," says he, " my thousand (not 
" family," as translated) is the poor (one) in Manasseh (forget- 
fnlness=the winter just passed), and I am least in my father's 
house." His thousand probably stood for the month February, 
where, near its end, the Sun (Gideon) was. It might also stand 



JUDGES. 219 

for the intercalary days at the end of the year, which were rep- 
resented as forgotten — Manasseh. However, the Lord prom- 
ised to be with him — Sun during summer. Gideon, to make 
sure the Lord was with him, requested him to wait till he 
brought his meat olfering (it was the passover lamb — Aries). 
The Lord promised to wait. Gideon brought his offering, 
when lo ! both it and the Lord disappeared from his sight, 
i. e., the Sun left Aries and entered Taurus (v. 21). Poor 
Gideon was badly scared, and thought he would die, but the 
Lord said : " Peace be unto thee ; fear not ; thou shalt not die,'' 
i. e., thou shalt come to the summer season. So Gideon built 
an altar, and called it u Jehovah-shalom"= e /a//reA is peace, 
i. e., it is summer. 

The Lord (Gideon having taken the first bullock = Sun in 
Taurus) next ordered him to take the second bullock of seven 
years (months) old, i. e., Taurus at the end of summer, and 
throw down the altar of Baal (peor) that thy father hath, and 
cut down the grove (asKerah) that is by it " (v. 25). He w T as 
also to build an altar unto the Lord, and offer the second bullock 
a burnt offering with the wood of the grove, as he cut it down. 

Baal-peor (Lord-of-the-opening=?mfo , #) was the God {Phal- 
1 us) "in whose worship females prostituted themselves " (Ges. 
Ileb. Lex., p. S59). Asherah (translated " grove ") answered 
to Yirgo during the year. She, as the Sun rises in Aries is 
seen in the opposite heavens, in the west, and is therefore 
" prostituted," or placed before Baal-peor. " Asherah and 
Ashtoreth are equivalent to each other " (Anc. Faiths, vol. i, p. 
307). Dr. Inman " feels disposed* to derive this word from isha 
and tor, the woman dove" {Ibid, p. 310). As tor also signifies 
an ox, I shall prefer this last, though the other is admissible, 
since the woman in this case is placed before the ox (Taurus). 

Now, when we remember that the annunciation of the Vir- 
gin took place March 25th; that Baal-peor was Lord of the 
opening, and that Asherah was the Goddess whose appropriate 
symbol was the grove, or year of thirteen lunar months, for the 
" custom of women " occurs at the end of each lunar month, 
we may be able to understand how Gideon cut down the grove, 
and cast down Baal's altar. Taking ten men (months) with 



250 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

him to do the work assigned him — " to throw down the altar 
of Baal (to bring Taurus to his meridian), and cut down the 
grove that is by it " (the corresponding months) — he was 
afraid to do it openly, because of his father's household, and 
the men of the city (the summer season) ; so he did it covertly 
in the night (winter), the time when the pleasures of love are 
usually enjoyed. When the men of the city found out what 
Gideon had done, they wished to kill him ; but his father told 
them if Baal was "a God" (Elohim), he could plead for him- 
self, which was found true (v. 31). The God of love has been, 
and ever will be, able to plead for himself. 

After this they all went over together into the valley of 
Jezreel (where God plants = spring). But the spirit of the 
Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet (the Ram's 
horns), when Abiezer (father-of-help = autumn) was called 
after him (v. 34). Being now altogether ready, Gideon, as 
was the custom, wanted a proof of his mission. This he pro- 
cured by means of a fleece of wool (Aries). This, exposed out 
of doors over night, was wet with dew, or remained dry, as he 
asked of God (vv. 37, 39). The phenomena of dew explain this : 
thus, " wool radiates heat freely, and being a bad conductor, 
collects (when the sky is clear) a large amount of dew" 
(Zoomis 1 Meteorology, p. 92). This for his first experiment. 
In the second probably some " slight artifical covering " was 
used. The omens being favorable, Gideon was prepared to go 
on his mission. 

So Gideon got up early and " pitched beside the well of 
llarod" (trembling=Nod=spring equinox). The Lord, how- 
ever, being a little jealous of Gideon's valor, checked him, 
saying he had too large an army. All the timid, therefore, 
were, at the instance of the Lord, permitted to retire. Still 
ten thousand men were left. This number was yet far too 
great; since the Lord (summer solstice) wanted Gideon to 
know that he had a hand in the matter. Gideon was, there- 
fore, directed to bring them down to the water (the meridian), 
and to take none but those that lapped water like a dog! 
This trial proved that but three hundred were necessary. 
With these Gideon proceeded to battle (vii, 6). 



JUDGES. 251 

Now let the reader observe that Gideon is the Sun ; that 
astrologically Leo is the Sun's house, and that of all the ani- 
mals represented in the zodiac, only the lion laps water. The 
three hundred men, then, are the thirty days of Leo, round 
numbers being used to conceal the truth from the uninitiated. 
The precise time is when Leo comes to his meridian in April 
(the Sun being in Taurus), where Moses struck the rock the 
second time and produced water — the latter rain of spring. 

Now when Gideon was come, a dreamer told his fellow he 
had dreamed a cake of barley (it was barley harvest) had tum- 
bled into the host of Midian, and overthrew them (vii, 13). 
His fellow answered that it was nothing else than the sword 
of Gideon, the son of Joash {Jah is fire). The Sun had 
come to his zenith. When Gideon understood the dream — 
that he was at his northern tropic, — he worshiped., i. e., he 
bowed down, and began his return to the south. He now 
(Sun in Leo) divided his little army into three companies (the 
three decans of Leo) and put trumpets (the horns of Taurus, 
with which he was in quartile aspect) in every man's hand, 
with empty pitchers (Aquarius with his pitcher is opposite 
Leo, and it was the dry season), and lamps (the stars) within 
the pitchers, for the Sun in Leo ? Aquarius, is seen during the 
night. 

Gideon now told his men to do as he did, and led off. All 
tooted with their horns, brake their pitchers, and took their 
lamps in their left hands (every day passed, of course, was at 
their left). The Lord, meanwhile, set every man's sword 
against his fellow, i. e., every star shed its light against or 
opposite its fellow, and all the host lied to Beth-shittah (win- 
ter), in Zererath (the bound-up or frozen), even unto the 
border of Abel-meholah unto Tabbath (good reports spring). 

From this place Gideon sent to the Ephraimites to come 
down to help him. These people having taken the waters of 
Beth-bara and Jordan (the latter rain) with Oreb (Raven) and 
Zeeb (wolf), two constellations which had just set, " did chide 
with him (Gideon) sharply" (viii, 1). Gideon, however, like 
a valiant leader, gave them more credit than he claimed for 
himself; came to the Jordan (the place where the ecliptic cuts 



252 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the equinoctial line) with his army, and passed over. Being 
faint, for the winter had consumed their provisions, Gideon 
asked of the men of Succoth (ten ts= summer) bread. It not 
being harvest-time, his request was denied. Gideon, somewhat 
nettled, told them that when he did take Zeba and Zalmunna 
he would tear their flesh with thorns and briers (the hardships 
of winter). He went on, however, up to Penuel (Ram's face), 
i. e., the Sun came in conjunction with Aries, where bread 
was still denied him. He now threatens " to break down this 
tower (the spring equinox) when he comes in peace," i. e., 
when he returns from the war with winter (v. 9). 

Now Zeba (the place where the first-born of the Egyptians 
was slain = the spring equinox) and Zalmunna (where shade is 
denied = summer) were in Karkor (winter), i. e., the time was 
winter, and Gideon went np by the way (fall equinox) of them 
that dwelt on the east of ISTobah (barking= Canis major, a 
paranatellon of Cancer) and Jogbehah (elevation = summer 
solstice). Reaching his enemy, he found them secure and 
smote them (viii, 11) ; then returned before the Sun w T as np 
(i. e., before the equinox of spring) from his battle. His home 
was in Ophrah, at the end of the year (v. 27). 

Setting ont on his third campaign, he caught a man of 
Succoth (the first month of summer), who described to him the 
princes and elders of Succoth, i. e., the months and their 
decans. Upbraiding them in his turn for their former ill- 
treatment (viii, 1), "he took the elders of the city, and thorns 
of the wilderness, and briers, and with them he taught the 
men of Succoth." "And he beat down the tower of Penuel 
and slew the men of the city " (vv. 16, 17). Coming again to 
Zeba and Zalmunna (winter), he asked : " What manner of 
men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?" They answered : 
"As thou art, so were they " (v. 18). Gideon finding they were 
his brethren, the sons of his mother ! ordered Jethro (redun- 
dancy = the intercalary days): "Up and slay them." But 
Jethro, being small, feared. Zebah and Zalmunna quietly sub- 
mitting to their fate, Gideon slew them with his own hand, 
and, like the Israelites, spoiled them of their ornaments (the 
stars). 



JUDGES. 253 

After these things, the children of Israel were so delighted 
with Gideon, that they asked him to set up a hereditary mon- 
archy over them. This Gideon Hatly refused to do, saying : 
' v I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you ; 
the Lord shall rule over you " (v. 23). 

Gideon next asked that all the ornaments, golden earrings, 
etc., which the children of Israel had taken, should be given to 
him, which was done (v. 25). Of these he made a golden 
ephod,* and put it in his city, in Ojyhrah ("female fawn " — a 
place near the spring equinox), "and all Israel went thither a 
whoring after it ; which thing became a snare unto Gideon and 
his house" (v. 17). 

Verily, one might think from the above account, that Gideon 
set up a house of ill-fame ; and this idea is strongly corrobo- 
rated by what follows, for in verse 30, it is said he had seventy 
sons (the sanhedrim) by many wives, besides one, Abimelech, 
by a concubine. However, " Gideon died in a good old age 
and was buried in the sepulchre of his father Joash in Ophrah " 
= the end of the year (v. 32). 

Jephthah and His Daughter. 

Jephthah, like many of his predecessors, and some of his 
successors, was the son of a harlot (the heavenly vault). He 
was a mighty man of valor. Being an illegitimate, he was 
thrust out of his father's house by the sons of his father's wife, 
who, for all we are told to the contrary, may have been of as 
ignoble birth as he. However, as he was the child of love, his 
ability as a statesman and warrior, superior as it was to that of 
any of his brethren, must be attributed to his illegitimate and 
divine, not human origin. 

Jephthah means "he will open,* 1 and has reference to the 
Sun as the opener of the year, being the same personification 

* The shape of the ephod. says Dr. Inman. when off the hody, is ^^^ n 

and represents the female organ. It is almost identical with the old ^=^ 

Bahylonian < ^-^^ : ^> > which was the representative of the same organ as stamped on 
coins and ' ^^-^^ medals (Anc. Faiths, vol. i, p. 487). 

Whatever the ephod may have heen, the connection in which we find it in the sacred 
writings, certainly leads one to suspect it had some relation as a symhol to the generative 
process. 



254 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

as Samson and the Grecian Hercules. After his expulsion 
from his father's house (summer solstice = the Sun's house), 
Jephthah fled to the land of Tob (good = autumn = fruits), 
where, soon after, he was associated with men (the winter con- 
stellations) of bad repute ("vain men" = winter months), who 
w T ent out with him, i. e., the Sun rose and set in turn with 
each of the southern constellations, which were empty and 
unproductive. 

"And it came to pass in process of time (after days in the 
Hebrew, i. e., in a few days) that the children of Amnion 
(Egypt = winter) made war against Israel " (summer) — xj, 4. 
War being thus declared, the elders of Gilead (the decani, or 
deacons of the summer months) wished to recall Jephthah to 
serve them as captain against Amnion. Jephthah, mindful of 
their previous ill-treatment while in prosperity, asked the elders 
why they now came to him in their distress ? Covertly 
acknowledging Jephthah's superiority, they answered : " There- 
fore we turn again unto thee now, that thou mayest go with us 
and fight against the children of Amnion, and be our head," 
etc. (xi, 8). Jephthah was ready to return and fight for the 
elders of Gilead, provided he was sure they would make him 
their leader. This they agreed to do ; and ratified their agree- 
ment with an oath (xi, 10). 

Jephthah, like most rulers, next proceeds to pick a quarrel 
with the Ammonites,, demanding why they had invaded his 
land, and received for answer: "Because Israel took away my 
land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon (shouting, 
or new-year's Sun) even unto Jabbok " (the pouring-out place, 
or end of the year at the spring equinox).*- Jephthah denied, 
saying : " Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land 
of the children of Amnion." Thus they quibbled. The truth, 
to which both alluded, was that, when winter came, summer 
was gone, and when summer came, winter was gone. 

But the Ammonites, Philistines or Egyptians, had invaded 
the land, and Jephthah must fight, i. e., winter had come and 

* The Ammonites, then, claimed that part of the year which was between the winter 
solstice and spring equinox — three months. The previous three months belonged to the 
children of Moab. Hence, " An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congrega- 
tion of the Lord " (Deut. xxiii, 3). That is, winter cannot be summer. 



( 



J UDGES. 255 

must be provided for. So Jephthah recounted the manner in 
which the Israelites came up out of Egypt, from Arnon (winter 
solstice) even unto Jabbok (spring equinox) ; how the Lord 
delivered Sihon (wiping-out Sun=end of the year), king of the 
Amorites (intercalary days), the kiDg of Heshbon (counting- 
Sun) into the hand of Israel, " with all the coasts of the Amor- 
ites from Arnon even unto Jabbok " (xi, 22). Having thus 
stated his case, Jephthah concludes by asking : " Shouldst thou 
possess it (the conquered territory) ? " " Wilt not thou possess 
that which Chemosh (the depressor = the Sun during the short- 
ening of the days) thy God giveth thee to possess?" "So 
whomsoever the Lord our God (the summer Sun) shall drive 
out from before us, them will we possess." " Art thou better 
than Balak (the emptier=first half of winter), the son of Zippor 
(summer), king of Moab," etc. (xi, 25)? 

But the king of the Amorites would not hear, and as Jeph- 
thah thought his people wronged, the war went on. "And 
Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said : If thou shalt 
without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, 
then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of 
my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the chil- 
dren of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it 
up for a burnt offering " (v. 31). 

So Jephthah (the Sun) went against the children of Am- 
mon (the last half of winter) ; and he smote them from Aroer 
(nakedness=earth in winter) to Minnith (division = spring 
equinox). And Jephthah came to Mizpeh (summer solstice) 
unto his own house, and behold his daughter (Jephthigenia 
=Iphigenia of the Grecian legend) came out to meet him 
(Yirgo of the zodiac was then in sextile aspect with the Sun). 
She being his only child, Jephthah exclaimed : " Alas ! my 
daughter, thou hast brought me very low." He then explained 
to her the nature of his vow, when Jephthigenia said : " Do 
unto me according to that which hath proceeded from thy 
mouth " (v. 36), — what Lot did to his younger daughter ! 
Only, said she, " let me alone two months, that I may bewail 
my virginity," which she was about to lose (v. 37). To her 
request Jephthah consented, unwillingly no doubt, as it would 



256 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

take him just two months to reach Yirgo, when (Sun in Yirgo) 
he would serve her as David, the man after God's own heart, 
served Uriah's wife! — that is, the Sun would pass through 
Yirgo, and thus offer her as a burnt offering. Thence it became 
a law (not custom, as in the English text) that the daughters 
of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah (v. 
40). Poor Jephthigenia ! 

Here, as in the case of Gideon, we have the episode of the 
Ephraimites, but in a different vein. Gideon praised the 
Ephraimites ; Jephthah massacred them. Ephraim, according 
to Gesenius, is "twin-land." Fuerst translates "fruits" but 
Dr. Inman will have it " calf" All three may be right, how- 
ever. As a calf the word relates to the constellation Taurus. 
The Bull, as the emblem of summer, may be translated fruits. 
As fruit is developed from the bud, the last appearing in spring, 
the first in autumn, Ephraim may be rendered " twin-land." 
Then, again, we must remember the word " Shibboleth," by 
the pronunciation of which Jephthah was able to detect any 
Ephraimite wishing to pass the Jordan (spring equinox). The 
Gideonites passed before the Ephraimites, i. e., the Sun en- 
tered Aries before it came to Taurus. Of course, they could all 
say shibboleth (flood, or stream), and passed over. But when 
the turn of the Ephraimites came, there being no stream to 
cross, they could only say sibboleth (fruits, and grain, for it was 
then harvest) ; so the Gideonites fell upon the Ephraimites, and 
slew forty and two thousand of them, i. e., they gathered and 
ate the fruits of the season. This is evident from the address 
of Gideon to the Ephraimites — ; ' Is not the gleaning of the 
grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer ? " 
( Jud.. viii, 2.) Gideon was a fruit-eater, and not a wine-bibber ! 
It was also the season of the plague. 

Samson, 

We pass next to the story of Samson. This Dupuis char- 
acterizes as a bad copy of the twelve labors of Hercules (Ori- 
gine cle tous les Cultes, torn, i, p. 311). Dr. Inman also thinks 
" the fable of Samson is based upon the stories told by the 



JUDGES. 257 

Greeks of Hercules" (Anc. Faiths, vol. i, p. 685). Other au- 
thorities might be quoted to prove the identity of these myths, 
but this is unnecessary, as there can be no doubt upon this 
point with the intelligent. 

Here, as usual, we are told the children of Israel " did evil 
in the sight of the Lord," consequently he abandoned them, or 
they him, as is always the case in winter, i. e., the Sun left the 
summer for the winter hemisphere. 

Samson is the Hebrew for Sun, and his birth was as fol- 
loweth : His reputed father's name was Manoah, which is 
simply a variation of Noah^ Earth = Joseph, the husband of 
Mary! Mrs. Samson (whose Christian name, unfortunately, 
has not come down to us), like most of the celebrated wo7nen 
of the Bible, " was barren, and hare not" However, as good 
luck would have it, " the angel of the Lord (the Earn Aries) 
appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, thou shalt con- 
ceive and bear a son " (Jud. xiii, 3). The woman, not at all 
abashed at the annunciation, immediately told her husband 
who was not far off (earth in Virgo) the joyful news. Manoah 
signified at once his desire that " the man of God " (who doubt- 
less resembled somewhat the men of God of our day) should 
again visit his wife, and entreated the Lord to let him come 
again, that he might tell them what to do with the child. 
It seems " the woman " became enciente during her first inter- 
view with " the man of God." However, " the man of God " 
very condescendingly came at the instance of Manoah, a second 
time. Curiously enough, too, it happened that " the woman" 
was alone this time, when " the man of God " came. On being 
apprised that " the man of God " had come again, Manoah 
hasted to see him, and being somewhat inquisitive, asked: 
" What is thy name ? " This was all very natural, as every 
husband would like to know what kind of company his wife 
kept during his absence. " The angel of the Lord " (Aries), 
or " the man of God " (Gabriel), however, perhaps a little sus- 
picious, answered Manoah's question by asking another : " Why 
askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret ? " (Jud. xiii, 
18). The root of the word here translated " secret," is jphalaj 
in Sanscrit, phal; in Greek, phallos; and in Latin, phallus= 
17 



258 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

the male generative organ. These words are all the same 
except in termination, as any linguist can see. 

Notwithstanding this evasive answer of " the man of God,'* 
Manoah, like Gideon, prepared a kid (Capella in the constella- 
tion Auriga, a paranatellon of Taurus) and offered it upon a 
rock (the spring equinox), and the " angel of God did won- 
drously ! while Manoah and his wife looked on " (v. 19). To 
understand the force of this " doing wondrously" the reader 
should see the seventeenth plate of Dupuis' Atlas to his Ori- 
gine of all Worship, which I cannot introduce here. Having 
fertilized the earth by his " vast embrace" the angel of the Lord 
(Aries) ascended in the flame of the altar, and did no more 
appear to Manoah and his wife. Manoah was badly scared, 
and told his wife they should surely die; because they, like 
Jacob, had seen God (Aries). Mrs. Manoah thought otherwise, 
since the Lord had received the burnt kid graciously. In due 
time, however, the woman bare the promised son and called his 
name Samson (the Sun). And the spirit of the Lord began to 
move Samson, at times, in the camp of Dan (Scorpio = winter) 
between Zorah (the winter solstice, his birth-place) and Eshtaol 
(the summer solstice), i. e., at the spring equinox. 

Passing the summer solstice, Samson went down to Tim- 
nath {South, — see Records of the Past, vol. i, p. 37). In his 
way thither, he saw a woman (Yirgo) a Philistine that pleased 
him well. Returning, he told his father and mother he had 
seen the woman, and asked them to get her for him for a wife. 
At first his parents hesitated, but on learning that it was of 
the Lord, they gave way, and went with their son. On his 
way, as he approached the vineyards of autumn, a young lion 
came roaring against him (Sun in Leo). This he rent as he 
would a kid. However, he told neither father nor mother 
w T hat he had done, but went on and talked with the woman 
(Sun in Yirgo), who pleased him well (it being the time of the 
ingathering of fruits). 

After a time (the next year) he returned to take her, and on 
his way, on turning aside, he discovered a swarm of bees and 
honey in the lion's (Leo's) carcass (bees and honey are usually 
found in the month of July). He took some and gave to his 



JUDGES. 259 

parents, but did not tell them how, or where he got it. While 
at his wedding feast, he proposed a riddle for his guests, saying if 
they could declare it within the seven days of the feast, he would 
give them thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments (one for 
every day in the, month). The riddle was this : " Out of the 
eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweet- 
ness." But they could not guess it, and answered through his 
wife. Samson retorted : " If ye had not ploughed with my 
heifer, ye had not found out my riddle." However, he went 
on down to Ashkelon (the scales of September), got his thirty 
garments off the men he there slew, and paid his forfeit. His 
anger being kindled, he next went up to his father's house, 
when behold ! his wife w r as given to his companion (the 
autumnal Sun). " A while after, in wheat harvest, Samson 
visited his wife with a kid (Capella of Auriga), saying, I will 
go in to my wife into the chamber." But to his astonishment, 
her father objected, and said : " I gave her to thy companion, 
because I verily thought thou hadst utterly hated her. Is not 
her younger sister fairer than she ? Take her, I pray thee, 
instead of her." But Samson's grit was up (the w T eather was 
hot) and he said : " Now shall I be more blameless than the 
Philistines though I do them a displeasure." So " Samson 
went out and caught 300 foxes, and took fire-brands, and 
turned tail to tail, and put a fire-brand (the Sun) in the midst 
between two tails (nights), and sent them into the standing 
corn (wheat, etc.) and burnt it up with the vineyards and olives 
(xv, 4, 5). (In Ovid's Fasti, B. iv, lines 680-712, is a similar 
story about the foxes.) 

This is a curious story, and has never, that I am aware of, 
been intelligibly explained. The following, I trust, will be 
found the true solution. The time was near harvest, w T hen the 
Sun was in Taurus, near the Pleiades. In this asterism we find 
a star of the third magnitude, named Alcyone— sea-dog, from 
the Greek als, the sea, and kuon, dog, because it seems to rise 
up out of the sea. The French call this star Menard — the 
Fox (Dupuis, torn, i, p. 92). An gelo De Gubernatis s&ys the 
fox is " the spring aurora" {Zool. Myth., vol. ii, p. 251). Thus 
we have a clew as to the nature of Samson's (the Sun's) 300 



260 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

foxes. The number 300 has reference to the three decans of 
ten days each in every month ; round numbers being used, as a 
rule, in the Bible. I suppose, then, that the heat of the Sun be- 
came so intense that it damaged the grain as it stood in the 
field (as it frequently does with us), and even in the shock, as 
also the grapes and olives. Thus we see how, as he intimated 
(Jud. xv, 3), Samson injured his own friends, the Israelites, as 
well as his enemies, the Philistines, which is ever the case 
when people go to war ; the resisting force being always equal 
to the force impulsive. 

In retaliation, the Philistines came up and burnt Samson's 
wife and her father with fire, i. e., the winter constellations 
rose with the sun (Jud. xiv, 15), and the people had to warm 
themselves with fire ! But Samson, ever ready to avenge him- 
self, soon after smote them hip and thigh (at the summer sol- 
stice, where Jacob wrestled with the Lord). Thence he went 
down and dwelt upon the rock Etam (winter solstice), whilst 
the Philistines pitched in Judah and spread themselves in 
Lehi (the jaw-bone = spring equinox). They now told Judah 
they had come up to bind Samson. Judah sent down three 
thousand men* to the top of Etam, and bound Samson and 
brought him up from the Rock, telling him the Philistines 
now ruled over them, and that they were about to deliver him 
into their hands. Samson cared not for this so that his own 
friends did not injure him. They promised : " Surely we will 
not hill thee." So when he came to Lehi ( jaw-bone = the 
spring equinox ; jaw-bone because the beginning of the year — 
of an ass== Sun's ecliptic, because, like the ass, it bears its bur- 
den =the Sun), the Philistines shouted (the west wind blew, 
and of course) against him. When, lo ! the spirit of the Lord 
(summer heat) came upon him, the cords were loosed from his 
arms as if "burnt with fire," and seizing the jaw-bone of the 
ass (spring equinox), he slew with it a thousand men (the last- 
month of the year). So elated was Samson at this that he 
exclaimed: "With the jaw-bone of the ass — the ass of two 
asses (the halves of the ecliptic) ; with the jaw-bone of an ass 
have I slain a thousand men " (Jud. xv, 16). 

* The three months from the winter solstice to the spring equinox. 



JUDGES. 261 

Having slain his thousand men, he threw aside the jaw- 
bone, and called the place Ramoth-lehi (jaw-bone lifting), i. e., 
the place where the year began. After this his great exertion, 
Samson was " sore athirst," thought he would die and fall into 
the hands of the uncircumcised. Moses (Aquarius) coming to 
his zenith in the nick of time, struck the Rock, while God 
assisting (Aries during March) by cleaving the hollow place = 
the alveolar process) of the jaw, brought water thereout (the 
latter rain), and Samson was saved. He therefore called the 
place En-hakkore, i. e., the place where he asked for water. 

After this adventure, entering upon another tour, he came 
in due time to Gaza. On his way he saw a harlot, and went 
in unto her (Sun in Virgo), the last of the summer months. 
Having learned that Samson was with them, the Gazites 
(Philistines) laid a plan to entrap and slay him ; but Samson 
arose at midnight (midwinter), and took the doors of the gate 
(folding doors, of course), with the two posts, put them upon 
his shoulders, and took them up to the top of a hill before 
Hebron (the intersection of the Sun's ecliptic with the equator 
= spring equinox), and thus stole the march of his persecutors. 

He next fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek 
(the vine) whose name was Delilah ^anguishing with desire, 
like her old great-grandmother Eve, when she first saw Adam). 
The time was spring, the season of love. Of course Delilah 
was in the same fix as Samson's mother was when she saw 
" the man of God." 

His old enemies, the Philistines, ever watchful, now bribed 
his paramour to find out " wherein his great strength lieth." 
She went to work, and Samson first told her to bind him with 
seven green withes (the seven summer months). These he 
snapped as though a thread of tow. Next he told her to bind 
him with seven new ropes (the same summer months), but he 
"brake these from off his arms like a thread." The third 
time, he said : " Weave my seven (the seven summer months) 
locks of my head." She did so, and fastened them to the web 
with a pin, but, lo ! he " went away with the pin of the beam 
and with the web." Disappointed, though no way discouraged, 
as thousands would have been after so many trials, Delilah 



262 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

now put her whole soul to the work for the fourth time. 
" How canst thou say I love thee," said she, " when thine 
heart is not with me?" and she pressed him daily with her 
words, and urged him, so that his soul (life) was vexed {short- 
ened in the Hebrew text) unto death (Jud. xvi, 16). 

So Samson told her all his heart ; that he was a JNazarite ; 
that he was unshaven, and that in his hair (the Sun's rays) lay 
his great strength. " If I be shaven, I shall become weak like 
any other man." Delilah (Yirgo) saw that this time he had 
told her the whole truth. Notifying his enemies, the Philis- 
tines, of her discovery, they came up with their bribe money 
(the price of the season's crop), when she caused Samson to 
sleep upon her lap (Sun in Yirgo) and called a man to shave 
off the seven locks upon his head (Apollo also had seven), when 
his strength went from him (summer passed away). When 
Samson awoke he wist not that his strength was gone, so he 
went out as formerly, but soon, to his sorrow, learned his 
mistake. 

Ah ! then the exulting Philistines (winter months) seized 
him and carried him down to Gaza. Here they put out his 
eyes (the clouds overspread the sky during winter — the rainy 
season) and enslaved him, as they did the Hebrews aforetime. 
Soon, however (at the winter solstice), his hair began to grow 
again, and its growth increased until his strength was renewed. 

The Philistines having met, as was their custom, near the 
spring equinox, to sacrifice to their fish-God Dagon (Pisces), 
called Samson and took him with them to make them sport. 
They sat him between the pillars of the house against which 
he leaned. The Philistines were having a grand time, for the 
house was not only full of men and women, but the roof was 
covered with people, and they made sport with Samson. Mean- 
while, addressing himself to the Lord (summer begins), Samson 
took hold of the two middle pillars of the house, exclaiming : 
" Let me die with the Philistines," lifted with all his might, 
and, overturning the house, slew the whole nation of the Phil- 
istines at one blow, himself dying with them, i. e., the year came 
to its end. Samson was buried between Zorah (winter solstice) 
and Eshtaol (summer solstice), i. e., he was buried at the spring 



JUDGES. 268 

equinox, where the year ended. He, it is said, judged Israel 
twenty years. On examining his story critically, it will be 
found he (the Sun) had passed over the ecliptic near twenty 
times. 

In Herodotus, B. 2, cap. 45, we have an epitome of this 
same story as it related to Hercules, or the Sun. 

"A Certain Levite " = The Earth. 

With the legend of Samson I had thought to dismiss the 
Book of Judges, but on looking into the 19th chapter, I find a 
complicated story of a " certain Levite," which, I think, it may 
be well to analyze. 

In verse 1, we are told that when there was no king in Israel 
(i. e., at the spring equinox, which was at the end as well as at 
the beginning of the year), there was " a certain Levite " (one 
bounds the Earth) sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim 
(the point opposite the spring equinox), who took a concubine 
(the Earth in Virgo), out of Beth-lehem-Judah (i. e., Virgo as 
the last of the summer or producing months). This concubine 
" played the whore against him," i. e., Virgo had connection 
with the Sun, which was over against, or opposite her at the 
spring equinox, which she does every spring as she sets in the 
west opposite the rising Sun. She then " went away from him 
(Virgo leaves Earth) unto her father's house to Beth-lehem- 
Judah (the end of April, when the harvest is ended), where she 
abode four whole months," i. e., Virgo came to her meridian 
in May, whence to the end of September is four whole months 
(xix, 2). 

Her husband now (at the end of summer, when the earth and 
Virgo again begin to approach each other) arose and went after 
her to speak friendly to her, i. e., to again make love to her, as 
he does every spring. On his way, he (Earth) took " his ser- 
vant " (Cancer) and " a couple of asses " (two stars in Cancer) 
with him ; and she brought him unto her father's (the Sun's) 
house (astrologically the summer solstice), i. e., the Earth came 
in conjunction with Cancer, and (the Sun being in his winter 
solstice) it was mid-winter. Soon after, the father (the Sun) of 



264 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the damsel (Yirgo) saw him (the Earth), i. e., when the Sun 
came to the spring equinox, " he was rejoiced to meet him 
(Sun opposite Earth), for it was then spring, when all nature 
brightens up. (Here is the end of the first round or year). 

ere (directly after the spring equinox) the father-in-law 
(Sun) retained {strengthened in the Hebrew text, i. e., warmed 
and fertilized the earth as the days lengthened) him three 
days (months). This brought him to the summer solstice (the 
earth being in Capricorn), when Aries came to his zenith, and 
so was the most high God. Three months later, and Aries 
would set, making out the six days (months) of Creation. 
The fourth and fifth days (months) from the spring equinox, 
he lingered (the earth moves most slowly about this time) by 
the way (vv. 5, 8), but on the sixth day (month) " he would 
not tarry, but rose up and departed " (v. 10), i. e., went to the 
autumnal equinox (Earth in Aries), coming over against Jebus, 
which is Jerusalem (summer solstice), and here (earth in Can- 
cer) there were with him " two asses saddled, and his concu- 
bine with him, i. e., Yirgo was in sextile aspect with the earth 
in Cancer. 

When they were by (not over-against, but in) Jebus = Jeru- 
salem^summer solstice, the day (season) was far spent (it 
was mid-summer), when his servant wished to stop at Jeru- 
salem (summer solstice). His master (Adoni=the sun dur- 
ing the shortening of the days) said, We will not stop, but 
pass on to Gibeah (hill of Benjamin = fall equinox). So they 
passed on, " and the sun went down (below the equator) when 
they were by Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin = Septem- 
ber (v. 14). Here (at the fall equinox) they remained in the 
street, for there was no man to give them lodging (v. 15). 
Soon, however, there came along an old man (the Sun, then as 
an old man) from his work out of Mount Ephraim (the summer), 
who sojourned with them at Gibeah, and inquired : " Whither 
goest thou, and whence comest thou ? " which question the 
man (Levite) answered thus : " We are passing from Beth- 
lehem-Judah (spring) toward the side of Mount Ephraim (fall) ; 
from thence I am. I am now going to the house of the Lord 
(the next summer), and there is no man to receive me." And 



JUDGES. 265 

the old man (sun in winter) furnished them with " straw and 
provender " and other necessaries out of the stores laid by for 
winter ; and they washed their feet (it was the rainy season), 
and did eat and drink (v. 21). 

But behold, when they thought all was right, and suspected 
no danger, " the men of the city, certain sons of Belial (sons 
of destruction, good-for-nothing fellows=the winter months), 
beset the house, beat tumultuously at the door, and ordered 
the old man (the Sun) to bring the man (the earth) that came 
into thy house, forth, that we may know him " (v. 22). The 
old man remonstrated, and refused them, but, like Lot, turned 
out to them his daughter (Virgo during winter), the man's 
concubine, and they knew her, and abused her all night (win- 
ter). Here let it be noted that when the sun goes down into 
the lower o~ southern hemisphere, Yirgo rises into the upper 
hemisphere, i. e., is turned out of summer, or her father's 
house, into winter, unto the rowdies— the winter days. Win- 
ter was denominated night, while summer was called day. 
Having abused the woman (Yirgo) all night, they let her go 
just as the day (summer) began to dawn. It was right here, 
just before the sun rises in Aries, i. e., at the dawning of the 
day, that Yirgo, the man's concubine, fell through the door of 
the man's house, where she was found at daylight, precisely 
the time when Yirgo sets. When her Lord (Adoni= master) 
got up, he found his concubine dead, killed by the men of 
Gibeah (xx, 5), i. e., the sacred year was ended. 

So the man (Earth) having got " home," took a knife and 
laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, with her bones, 
into twelve pieces (one for each month in the year), and sent 
her into all the coasts of Israel, i. e., Yirgo was sent over the 
twelve months of the year. 

In chapter xx we find the congregation (the seven summer 
months), from Dan to Beer-sheba, gathered together unto the 
Lord in Mizpeh, i. e., the summer is just ended. Here, at the 
end of summer, the Levite (Earth), again recounts his wrongs 
(vv. 4-7). The children of Israel, knit together as one man 
(v. 11), declare that they will not, any of them turn unto the 
house of Benjamin (v. 8), but that they will " go up by lot 



266 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

against ft," i. e., they (the constellations of the zodiac) will 
pass one by one in conjunction with the Sun. Their army thus 
gathered at the fall equinox, they demand of Benjamin that 
the children of Belial (the winter days) be delivered up to 
them. This Benjamin, with his army of " left-handed men " 
that "could sling stones at a hair breadth, and not miss," flatly 
refused to do. A battle, of course, followed. Benjamin {the 
left-handed} coming forth from Gibeah (the beginning of win- 
ter), destroyed down to the ground (the winter solstice) and 
carried every thing before them (v. 21). 

The children of Israel, sorely grieved at their loss, went up 
weeping (the rainy season came on) before the Lord, and asked 
if they should try again (v. 23). The Lord said : Go up — in 
the first instance, they "went out" (v. 20) — against him. So 
they went " up " (from the winter solstice), but Benjamin was 
again too much for Israel, sweeping him down to the ground 
(the spring equinox). Israel now inquired at " the ark of the 
covenant," by the mouth of Phinehas (the March wind), and 
the Lord said, " Go up," for to-morrow I will deliver them (the 
children of Belial) into thine hand " (v. 28). Israel now, in 
imitation of Joshua, set " liers in wait " (the intercalary days), 
and obtained an easy victory, treading down with ease the 
Benjaminites in the chase over against Gibeah toward the sun- 
rising (spring equinox, — v. 43). 

Chapter xxi. The tripartite is here succeeded by the older 
but unequal bipartite division of the year. Hence the people 
swore (sevened) in Mizpeh (summer) that they would no longer 
give their daughters for wives to Benjamin (Libra = September); 
and hence, too, after coming to the house of God = Aries 
(Beth-el), and abiding before the Gods (JZlo/dm, or seven sum- 
mer months) till even (winter), "they lifted up their voices and 
wept sore," i. e., the rainy season came on (v. 2). And hence, 
again, at the end of these seven summer months, " they found 
one tribe (Scorpio) lacking in Israel." Him, according to their 
oath, they doomed to die (v. 5), i. e., they passed him to the 
winter side of the year, which, being unproductive, was death. 

However, as to Benjamin (Libra), they repented, i. e., they 
placed him to the summer side of the year. Still they found 



JUDGES. 267 

one tribe (Scorpio) cut off* from Israel (v. 6). They, therefore, 
instituted an inquiry to find the missing tribe (v. 8), and how 
to evade their oath, and so be able to give wives to them that 
remain (of Israel, viz., Leo, Virgo and Libra — this last in par- 
ticular). On numbering, they found none of the inhabitants 
of Jabesh Gilead (months of winter) with them (v. 9). Twelve 
thousand men (the twelve months of the year) w 7 ere, therefore, 
sent " to utterly destroy every male and every woman that 
hath lain by a man " (v. 11), i. e., the year ended. In this 
expedition they found among the people of Jabesh Gilead 
"four hundred virgins," and brought them to the camp in 
Shiloh (summer solstice), which is the land of Canaan (falling- 
olf, or shortening days). The whole congregation (the seven 
summer months) now conferred with Benjamin at the rock 
Rimmon (place where pomegranates ripens September), where 
they gave them the four hundred virgins they had saved alive 
from the Jabesh-Gileadites (the days less the overreckoning) 
for wives, but these sufficed them not (vv. 13, 14). The 
deficiency, however, they were directed to make up out of 
them " that be escaped of Benjamin," at Shiloh (summer sol- 
stice), at the yearly dance of its daughters (v. 19). The 
Benjaminites then, i. e., every man of them not supplied with 
a wife, issued from their vineyards (i. e., that portion of Sep- 
tember which August covered by the annual overreckoning of 
11 minutes and 10.3 seconds), and took them wives, according 
to their number, and bore them off in triumph, each returning 
to his own inheritance (see 2 Kings xv, 16; also Ahaz's dial, 
2 Kings xx). 



CHAPTER XV. 



RUTH. 



IN Ruth we have a clever little love story, accompanied by 
some few mishaps, but followed by the usual consumma- 
tion — wedlock. 

Elimelech (El is my M?ig=:Aries during summer), a man 
of Beth-lehem-Judah (spring), having wed Naomi (summer) 
and got two sons by her, sets out with his family for Moab 
(winter). Elimelech (summer) soon died, and his sons Mahlon 
cave-Sun = summer) and Chilion (pining-away = winter) took 
them wives of the daughters of Moab. Orpah (fawn = Virgo 
in winter) and Ruth (female friend — Virgo in summer). The 
two sons died in turn, and without issue. The poor widow 
Naomi, finding hard fare in Moab, and hearing that the Lord 
had given his people bread (harvest of spring), set out on her 
return to the land of Judah (spring) with her two daughters- 
in-law (v. 7). As they proceeded on their way, Naomi requested 
her daughters-in-law to return each to her mother's house, 
hoping that by so doing each might " rest in the house of her 
husband " (v. 9). However, they continued to follow the old 
lady, as if they thought she would yet furnish them with other 
husbands ; at leas*: the mother-in-law seemed to think that was 
their object. However, at the last moment (i. e., at the spring 
equinox), Orpah yielded to the request of Naomi, but Ruth 
(Yirgo in summer) stuck by her, saying : " Where thou diest, 
will I die" (v. 17), i. e., at the end of summer. So the two 
came to Beth-lehem (spring harvest), when the people inquired : 
" Is this Naomi ? " She replied : " Call me not Naomi (sum- 
mer), but Mara (bitter = winter) ; for I went out (of summer) 
full, but the Lord hath brought me back empty " (v. 21). 

Naomi now, by her request, permits her daughter-in-law, 
Ruth (Yirgo in summer), to go to the field of her kinsman 



RUTH. 269 

Boaz (constellation Bootes), in whose sight, she was persuaded, 
she should find grace. Of course, she had a right to think 
her beauty would soon attract the attention of her kinsman, 
and she was right. Boaz told her " to abide fast by his maid- 
ens, and charged his young men not to touch her" (v. 9). 
Ruth acknowledged her obligation to him, by falling on her 
face (Yirgo sets head first) to the ground. Meanwhile the 
courtship went on until Ruth, by the advice of her mother-in- 
law, who understood all about such matters, cleaned herself 
up, put on her night clothes (iii, 3), and, when Boaz had got 
sufficiently fuddled and gone to bed, she came softly to where 
he lay, uncovered his feet, and got into bed with her lover 
(v. 7). Boaz, being merry, was in the proper mood, as the old 
mother had foreseen, to get into the trap thus set for him. 

During the night, on coming to a little, he turned over and 
found a woman in bed with him. Of course, he was greatly 
frightened, and called out : " Who art thou ? " The poor 
lonely, longing young widow, as much scared as he, answered : 
" I am Ruth, spread thy skirt over me " (iii, 9). At this Boaz 
was as much tickled as he was scared at first ; for Ruth now 
showed him more kindness than she did at first (iii, 10). " I 
will do to thee all that thou requirest," said he ; for every 
body knows that thou art a virtuous woman (v. 11). There is 
another, said he, nearer than I, who ought to do the part of a 
kinsman ; but never mind ; " lie down until the morning " (iii, 
13). She did as requested, " and rose up before one could 
know another." Boaz, as she departed, strictly charged her 
to tell nobody that she had slept with him over night, and 
gave her six measures of barley in part compensation for her 
company (iii, 17). 

Boaz next went to the gate (the eastern horizon), where he 
met the kinsman (Aries setting) whom he had spoken of to 
the young widow. Inviting him to sit down, he told him of 
the inheritance left by Elimelech, his brother. " The kinsman 
said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inher- 
itance ; redeem thou my right to thyself" (iv, 6) — Winter 
could not become summer. So Boaz redeemed it for himself, 
had the bargain ratified after the usual way, and took Ruth for 



270 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

his wife. In due time she brought her husband a son — Obed 
(servant) by name=the Redeemer= Christ = the summer Sun ! 

The curious reader will look on the celestial globe, where 
he will see Ruth (Virgo) going to bed, i. e., setting at the feet 
of Boaz, or Bootes, the ox-driver, otherwise called Arcto-phy- 
lax, or the Bear-driver, in allusion to Ursa major, directly 
west of him. 

Many are the myths which have been framed in relation to 
these famous constellations in almost all parts of the world. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SAMUEL. 

NEXT in order comes Samuel {heard of God, or Aries). 
Samuel was the son oi Elkanah (the Ram that builds= 
the Creator). Elkanah, we are told, was of Ramathaim 
Zophim, or the two-topped overflowings ; i. e., the former and 
latter rains. He was also an Ephrathite, i. e., a son of Eph- 
raim, or the twin-land '= spring and autumn, which corresponds 
to, and is the same as Ramathaim-zophim. Elkanah was, then, 
the Ram Aries during the year, or the year itself. He is 
further identified as the son of Jeroham (the finder of mercy = 
spring); the son of Elihu (his Ram^Aries); the son of Tohu 
(the depressed one— winter); the son of Zuph (flood =former 
rain). 

Like others of the Bible patriarchs, he had two wives: 
Hannah (favor=Yirgo during spring and summer before the 
mgathering=Sarai), and Peninnah (she that faces the Fishes 
= Pisces; from pent, to face, and mm, a fish, as Yirgo does in 
the zodiac in autumn = Hagar). Peninnah, like Hagar, had 
children (ingathered crops), but Hannah, like Sarai, had none ; 
consequently a jealousy arose between the two wives; and Pe- 
ninnah vexed poor Hannah until she " wept sore," i. e., until 
the rainy season, over which she presided, came on. 

Now Elkanah (Aries or the Sun, it don't matter which) 
went to Shiloh (the summer solstice) yearly, to worship, i. e., 
to fall down, and to sacrifice, i. e., to make himself holy, or 
shiny as in summer. On these occasions, he gave his wives 
portions, but Hannah's was a " double portion,"* i. e., losing 
sight of Peninnah, Hannah was made to represent the whole 

* The Indian Maharaja granted "two boons to Kaikeyi," his favorite wife {Wheeler's 
India, vol. ii. p. 152 1. 



272 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

of the year, which was equivalent to changing Sarai to Sarah, 
and casting out Hagar= one fled. 

" So Hannah rose up after they (her husband and company) 
had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk (i, 9), i. e., after 
the Sun had passed his summer solstice, and Yirgo her me- 
ridian. But Hannah was now (in winter) in " bitterness of 
soul," and while talking to herself, i. e., while invisible as a 
day constellation, Eli (my Ram or the Sun), who was by a post 
of the temple (fall equinox), supposing her drunk, told her to 
put away her wine, to which she replied : " Count me not a 
daughter of Belial " (winter), i. e., let me go into the summer 
hemisphere, and Eli said, "Go in peace" (i, 17). From this 
time her countenance was no more sad, since her prospects 
were brightening up. 

After this, " they (Sun in Yirgo) rose up early in the morn- 
ing, worshiped (i. e., went down to the winter solstice), returned 
and came to Ramah (high place = spring equinox). Here Elka- 
nah (the Creator) knew his wife (Earth in Yirgo), and the Lord 
(Sun) remembered her" (i, 19). Now, note that the word 
translated remembered, means to penetrate, as the membriim 
virile. Thus known by the Lord, at the fullness of time Han- 
nah (the year) bore a son, whose name she called Samuel (the 
Ram-heard\ because when born the Bam Aries was upon his 
meridian at the winter solstice. Samuel and Ishmael, names 
having the same Hebrew roots, and the same mother under 
different names, are consequently the same personification. To 
disguise their identity and cheat the unlearned reader, it 
became necessary to spell them differently, which was done 
accordingly. Samuel was born at the winter solstice, as is the 
Sun, who is the Savior of the World and the Jesus Christ of 
the Gospels, so ignorantly, and, of course, irreverently, wor- 
shiped by Christians. 

Taking winter and Egypt as synonyms, of which there 
can be no doubt, we can readily understand that saying of the 
Lord : " Out of Egypt have I called my son " (Mat. ii, 15). 
After the birth of Samuel, Elkanah and his house (Beth-el = 
Aries) went up to offer unto the Lord (the summer solstice) 
the yearly sacrifice, but Hannah went not up until after the 



SAMUEL. 273 

child was weaned, i. e., not until after the Sun had passed his 
northern tropic, and Yirgo her meridian, in May. She might 
then go up. So they slew a bullock (Sun passed Taurus), and 
Hannah went up bringing the child (Earth) to Eli (mid-sum- 
mer Sun). "And she said (addressing Eli): O my Lord 
(Adoni), as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that 
stood by thee here and prayed for this child (Earth). There- 
fore, I have lent him to the Lord (Jahveh), or, as in the 
marginal reading, " I have returned him whom I obtained by 
petition, to the Lord ; as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to 
the Lord. And Samuel worshiped the Lord there " (i, 28), i.e., 
he bowed before the Lord, where the Sun, turned of his north- 
ern tropic, began his southern tour. When the Sun entered 
Libra, Samuel, or the Earth, ceased to live, i. e., vegetation 
declined, winter soon came on, and Samuel's time with the 
Lord, or summer, ended, as with us it still does at the end of 
every summer. 

Hannah now, at the end of the productive year, sings: 
" Mine horn (the cornucopise) is exalted, my mouth is enlarged 
over mine enemies ; the bows of the mighty (the rain-bows of 
summer) are broken," etc., i. e., the summer is ended, and con- 
cludes with : u The Lord (Sun) killeth and maketh alive," i. e., 
winter and summer alternate ; " he bringeth low, and lifteth 
up; he bringeth down to the grave (Sheol = winter), and 
bringeth up " (to heaven, or summer), — 1 Sam. ii, 6. The next 
verse repeats the same idea. 

But Samuel (Earth) ministered before the Lord, during 
summer, and his mother Hannah, or the year, gave him a new 
coat from year to year, when she came up with her husband to 
offer the yearly sacrifice, i. e., when the Sun, Earth and Yirgo 
come in conjunction, as they do annually, the earth is clothed 
with its crops, which are sacrificed, eaten up, or destroyed by 
the following winter. 

And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived and 
bare three sons and two daughters " (ii, 21). Pretty well for 
once, though undoubtedly true. Here the Lord is the Sun at 
the spring equinox, and Hannah is put for the year. The sons 
were the three seasons of the ancient year as in the myth of 
18 



274 THE SCIEXCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Noah ; the two daughters are Yirgo at the two equinoxes, in one 
or the other of which she appears at intervals of six months. 

But the child Samuel (Earth) grew before the Lord (sum- 
mer), while Eli (my Ram) was become very old, i. e., the sum- 
mer was near its end ; and Eli " heard all that his sons did 
unto all Israel ; and how they lay with the women that assem- 
bled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (ii, 22). 
The sons of Eli were the sons of Belial (ii, 12), or the unpro- 
ductive Sun, and good-for-nothing fellows they were; they 
knew not the Lord or summer. Hence at the end of summer 
the Sun comes in conjunction with Yirgo and lies with the 
women of Israel at the door of the tabernacle, etc., i. e., the 
Sun rises in Yirgo, at the close of summer, where is situated 
the back door of the temple, or congregation of the summer 
months — the fall equinox. 

Nevertheless, Samuel was in favor with the Lord, and also 
with men (earth in summer), when (ii, 27) there came a man 
of God (Elohim in the original, the man of God was one. of 
the three decans, or deacons of Aries) unto Eli (Sun at mid- 
summer), and told him that the Lord appeared plainly unto 
the house of his father (Aaron) when they were in Egypt (win- 
ter) in Pharaoh's house (Sun at winter solstice ; Aries on his 
meridian), and that the Lord chose him (Aaron) out of all the 
tribes of Israel (four summer constellations) to be his priest 
principal elder during summer) to burn incense (the flowery 
odors of summer) ; to wear an ephod (the emblem of fertility) ; 
and to give unto thy father's house all the offerings made by 
fire (the summer Sun) of the children of Israel =the fruits of 
summer. " Wherefore," he asks, u kick ye at my sacrifice and 
at my offering (the season's crops)?" u Behold the days shall 
come when I will cut off thine arm," etc. (v. 31), i. e., after 
the constellation Aquarius or Moses sets, the summer with its 
crops will end, and then " thou shalt see an enemy (winter) in 
my habitation (the year). And the man of thine (winter sol- 
stice, represented by Saturn, the God of time), whom I shall 
not cut off from mine altar (because he could not), shall be to 
consume thine eyes, and grieve thine heart (life in the original), 
i. e., winter will succeed summer. 



SAMUEL. 275 

And as a sign that all this shall come to pass, Hophni 
(lighter = winter solstice) and Phinehas (Brazen month = sum- 
mer solstice) would, like Uzzah and Ahio (2 Sam. vi, 3, 7), and 
also Nadab and Abihu (Lev. x, 2), both die in one day, i. e., 
when the Sun comes to the fall equinox, it is neither summer 
nor winter, but between the two. 

Here (1 Sam. iii, 1) we find Samuel (Earth) ministering unto 
the Lord (Summer) before Eli (" summit" = summer solstice), 
i. e., the Sun was in his northern solstice, the Earth being in 
Capricorn, of course, and the word of the Lord was precious 
(the crops looked well) ; there was no breach of vision (open 
is a mistranslation), i. e., the days being long and the sunshine 
bright, there was no lack of light. 

Soon after (at the fall equinox) Eli (the Sun) "laid down 
in his place," when his eyes began to grow dim that he could 
not see (iii, 2) ; but ere the lamp of the Gods (Sun of summer) 
went out in the temple of the Lord (at the end of summer) 
where the ark of God was (Aries setting at the fall equinox, 
or the stone Eben-ezer, where the Philistines annually take 
possession of it). Here Samuel (the Earth) laid down to sleep 
as did his old father Adam before him (Gen. ii, 21). The Lord 
(the following summer) now began to call, Samuel, Samuel ! 
Samuel ! ! Being very tired and sleepy withal, and not recog- 
nizing the voice ot the Lord, Samuel answered three several 
times — "Here am I," and as often sought Eli for an explana- 
tion. Eli told him it was the Lord (the following summer) who 
called him, and, having instructed him how to act, told him to 
go to sleep again. Soon, however, the poor fellow's sleep was 
again disturbed ; for " the Lord called as at other times, Samuel, 
Samuel" (iii, 10). Samuel answered, arose and made the 
Lord's acquaintance, for, the time being spring, he opened 
the doors of the Lord's house (summer) and went in (iii, 15). 
Samuel now prospered, for the Lord was with him (iii, 19), and 
all Israel from Dan to Beersheba (i. e., the whole year) knew 
that Samuel was a prophet of the Lord (that the Earth during 
summer foretold the coming crop). However, it was not long 
before the Lord appeared to Samuel in Shilok= mid-summer. 

But poor Samuel soon got on the shady side of the Lord, 



276 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

for, leaving the summer solstice, he came to all Israel (the four 
summer constellations — Leo, Yirgo,. Libra and Scorpio), as 
they went out to battle with the Philistines (winter). They 
pitched beside Ebenezer=stone-of-help=fail equinox, where 
they met the Philistines ready for the fight. The Israelites 
caused Hophni (fighter) and Phineas (brazen month) to bring 
the ark (arc) of the covenant of the Lord into the camp. It 
was received by all Israel with a shout that made the Earth 
ring again (iv, 5). The Philistines were badly scared (iv, 7). 
Soon, however, they regained their presence of mind, and by 
dint of hard fighting, took the ark of the Lord, slew 30,000 
men (the three months between the fall equinox and winter 
solstice), together with Hophni and Phineas, sons of Eli^the 
two solstices. 

" And there ran a man of Benjamin " (Sun in Libra) the 
man opposed to " the man of God " (Sun in Aries) of Mrs. 
Manoah (Jud. xiii), out of the army and came to Shiloh (winter 
solstice), with his clothes rent (the shine being partly taken 
out of him = the Sun) and with Earth upon his head (Sun is 
nearest the Earth in winter). When the man of Benjamin 
(Sun in winter) related the defeat of Israel, and the loss of the 
ark of God, Eli, who had watched and trembled for the ark of 
God, fell " backward by the side of the gate (winter solstice), 
broke his neck and died " (the Sun was supposed to die at 
midwinter at the end of the year). In the meanwhile, Eli's 
daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife (Virgo then rising in the east 
at midnight), being near delivery, and badly frightened at the 
loss of the ark, brought forth a son (Jesus Christ), whom she 
named I-chabod, i. e., in-glorious=not shining=" the glory of 
the Lord is departed, for the ark of God is taken," i. e., the 
Sun had gone to Hell =Sheol= Hades, or the winter solstice. 

The Philistines kept the ark of the Lord seven (the sacred 
number) months, and then passed it over to the Beth-shemites 
(summer months). Soon after regaining its possession the poor 
people looked into it, a thing they could not help, and 50,070 
men of them were slain, as I have before explained (see ante). 
In consequence of this disaster, they gladly passed it to the 
people of Kirjath-jearim (leaved-out cities = mid-summer). 



saul. 277 

Samuel (vii, 3) told the people if they would return unto the 
Lord, they must put away their false gods (Aries during winter) 
and Ashtaroth (Venus as morning star) from among them. 
This done, they might prepare their hearts to serve the Lord, 
i. e., spring would come (vii, 3). The people at once pro- 
ceeded to obey Samuel's directions, coming tirst to Mizpeh 
(watch-tower = spring equinox, the beginning of summer). Here 
they drew water (the latter rain), and poured it out before the 
Lord, i. e., the rain fell upon the ground during summer. 

Samuel, having judged Israel in Mizpeh, i. e., during sum- 
mer, the people gathered together in the Mizpeh (the fall 
equinox), where they met the Philistines, and were afraid of 
them (vii, 7). They therefore urged Samuel to save them. 
So Samuel took " a sucking lamb " (Aries just about to leave 
the summer hemisphere) and offered it wholly to the Lord. 
In the meanwhile the Philistines drew near to battle, i. e. 
summer met winter, K but the Lord thundered and discomfited' 
them" for the time being. However, the men of Israel went 
out of Mizpeh (the summer) and pursued and smote the Philis- 
tines unto Beth-car = car house, or fall equinox. Here Samuel 
took a stone and set it between the Mizpeh (summer solstice) 
and the Shen (the tooth — the winter solstice, a place, says Dr. 
Smith, of which nothing is known), and called it Eben-ezer 
(stone of help=fall equinox), saying hitherto hath the Lord 
(summer) helped us ; thus intimating that during winter the 
people must obtain help elsewhere. 

Thus were the cities which the Philistines had taken from 
Israel all restored to him, from Ekron (vacuity = the end of the 
year at the spring equinox), even unto Gath (wine-press = fall 
equinox), and there was peace between Israel (summer) and 
the Amorites (winter), i. e., it was neither. 

Saul. 

When Samuel (the Earth) was old, i. e., when winter came 
on, he made his two sons, Joel (Eljah=the Sun in Aries), the 
first-born, and Abiah (his father is Jah, or the snmmer=the 
fall equinox), i. e., the two equinoxes ; the first being born, as 



2<<S THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the name indicates, when the Sun enters Aries ; the last when 
the Sun enters Libra, six months later, where the father was at 
the birth of the elder. They were judges in Beer-sheba (the 
seventh month, the Sun being in Libra). These sons walked 
not in the ways of their father, " but turned aside after lucre, 
and took bribes (the crops) and perverted judgment," that is 
departed from the fall equinox, the place of judgment (viii, 3), 
and winter followed. 

This, as it is always sure to do, displeased the people ; and 
they asked of Samuel a king. At this Samuel, in his turn, 
was displeased, for he, as the earth, or nature always is, was on 
the side of the people. So Samuel prayed to the Lord (sum- 
mer) for help. The Lord, however, told Samuel to hearken to 
the people ; for says he, " they have not rejected thee, but 
they have rejected me " (viii, 7), i. e., they were still on the 
earth though they had left the summer hemisphere. "Appoint 
them a king, yet protest solemnly (the weather was growing 
colder) unto them, and shew them the manner of the king (the 
winter Sun) that shall rule over them" (viii, 9). Samuel' pro- 
tested, as the Lord had directed, but the people said : " Nay, 
but we will have a king over us " (viii, 19). 

Though fairly warned by Samuel, and in time, the people 
would not rest, as it ever has been, and is still the case ; but 
would have a king, come what might. So Samuel (the earth) 
made Saul, Sheol, Hades, Hell, or the pit (winter solstice) 
a Benjamite (i. e., one related to Benjamin, or the Sun in 
Libra, because in quartile aspect with him), king, i. e., the 
earth came in conjunction with Cancer, the Sun being in Cap- 
ricorn. 

We first meet with the name of this king in Gen. xxxvi, 
37, 1676 B.C., where he is styled " Saul of Kehoboth (Zodiac) 
by the river " (Aquarius), and follows or succeeds Samlah (a 
garment, i. e., the earth in summer). In 1 Chron. i, 48, 1676 
B.C., he is " Shaul of Rehoboth by the river," and reigns after 
Samlah, or the summer Sun. In both accounts he is made to 
die before the year 1496 B.C., being not far from 180 years old. 
The latter spelling (Shaul) accords with the pointing of the 
Hebrew ; the former does not. 



saul. 279 

In this myth (1 Sam. ix), Saul is brought upon the stage 
1095 B.C., and dies about 1056, B.C., at the age of about 39 
years. The reader may note that these Bible men live, die ; 
then live again! Our last Saul, Shaul, or Sheol — however 
you spell the name — whom our Samuel, Shamael, or Ishmael 
(the earth in its orbit), made king over us, died about the 21st 
of March, 1876. He will come to life again after the 22d of 
September next ! Thus we see that when Bible interpreters 
and translators have a selfish end in view, they transfer or 
translate accordingly. If they wish to personify winter, as in 
this myth, they transfer the word and spell it Saul or Shaul; 
but, their object being to frighten dupes and fools, they do no 
such thing. They then translate by the most frightful names 
and epithets they can command or conceive of, as grave, pit, 
bottomless pit, hell, etc. ~No wonder Cicero thought it unac- 
countable that one priest could look another in the face and 
not laugh ! The wonder is that the people have been able to 
submit for so many ages to such abominable imposture. 

But to return to Saul, Shaul, Sheol, Hell, Winter, or the 
Grave, the tall or surly king. His father Kish (a bow) had 
lost his asses, i. e., at the winter solstice, the constellation Can- 
cer, containing two stars called the asses, sets, and thus are 
Saul's father's asses lost. Wishing to recover them, Kish said 
to Saul (Sun in Capricorn), his son : " Take one of the servants 
(the moon, as we shall soon see), arise, go seek the asses." 
Saul did as his father bid him ; and having passed many places, 
found not the asses. At length they came to (not into) the land 
of Zuph (spring equinox). Here Said (winter) was lost, and 
proposed to return (ix, 5). This was impossible. What to do 
he didn't know ; he was in a strange land, and altogether in a 
bad fix. At last his servant told him there was " a man of 
God " (Sun in Aries) in the city ; that he was an honorable 
man, and truthful ; for whatever he said came to pass (ix, 6). 
But what could this avail poor Saul ? — his "bread was spent," 
and he had nothing to pay " the man of God," i. e., the priest, 
with. Luckily, however, his servant (the Moon), after an 
anxious search, found the " fourth part of a shekel of silver " 
(the emblem of the moon in her last quarter). This was the 



280 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

exact fee that would admit them into the presence of " the 
man of God" — the beginning of the new year.* 

Prepared with his guide (the Moon), Saul and his servant 
set out upon their doubtful way, and as they went up the hill 
to the city (of God or Gad), they found young maidens (the 
stars of Virgo) going out (Yirgo setting) to draw water (the 
latter rain). Saul asked them : Is the seer here ? The maid- 
ens answered : He is, behold, he is before you ; go straightway 
into the city and you will find him to-day ; for the people hold 
a feast (the passover) there to-day, and they will not eat until 
lie (Samuel) come. So Saul went into the city, and "'behold 
Samuel (the Earth) came out against him " — Saul, or the Sun 
(1 Sam. ix, 14). The Lord had previously whispered to Samuel 
(ix, 15) that Saul would soon put in his appearance, i. e., that 
spring was near. So the moment Samuel espied Saul, the 
Lord exclaimed, " Behold the man (Sun) whom I spake to 
thee of" (ix, 17). Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate (the 
spring equinox), and asked for the seer, for he was yet in quest 
of his father's asses ! Samuel said : I am the seer ; thy asses, 
which were lost three days (months) ago are found (Cancer at 
meridian). 

Samuel now had a conversation with Saul about the king- 
ship, but didn't get much out of him. However, he took him 
and his servant up into the parlor (summer solstice), " the 
chiefest place among them that were bidden," thirty persons 
(the number of days in the month) being present with them. 
Here Saul got his dinner, it being the noon of the year. He 
ate, however, at the second table, or at least of that that was 
" left," or laid by for winter (ix, 24). After dinner, they went 
into " the city." When they came to the end of the city, hav- 
ing communed with Saul, Samuel proposed to show him " the 
word of God," i. e., the products of the summer (ix, 27). 

Without waiting for a reply, and unbeknown to Saul, 
Samuel dashed a bottle of oil (it being the season when oil 
was pressed out) on his head, and then kissed him (the two 
met at the fall equinox). What poor Saul thought of this 

* We remark here that most ancient nations began their year at the spring equinox. 
Even in England '• the civil or legal year formerly began on Annunciation day. or the 
25th of March." (Rees' Cyclopaedia, Art. Year). 



SAUL. 281 

proceeding we are not informed. However, Samuel there 
dubbed him captain (not king) over the Lord's inheritance 
(winter). Saul, who up to this time had been lost and under 
the guidance of Samuel (by the old Ptolemaic system of astron- 
omy the Sun seemed under the guidance of the Earth), now 
departed and came to the sepulcher of Rachel (Libra), where 
he found two men (Benjamin and Samuel) at Zelzah (shade = 
winter), who told him his father had found his asses (Cancer 
on the meridian), but sorrowed for the loss of his son (the 
summer Sun), saying, What shall I do for my son? (x, 2). 
Saul, being of a surly temper, cared little for his father (sum- 
mer), but went on to " the plain of Tabor " (umbilicus, or navel 
= winter solstice, Mount Tabor denoting the summer sol- 
stice, — see Jud. iv, 6, 12, 14). Thence he went to " the hill of 
God" (spring equinox). Here he met a company of prophets 
{nabiim, from naba—to pour forth together = the confusion of 
Babel), who prophesied, and as they prophesied, " the spirit of 
the Lord" (warmth of the summer Sun) came upon him, and 
Saul prophesied too and was " turned into another man," for 
God was with him = Sun in Aries (x, 7). After this, i. e., from 
the spring equinox, Samuel went before Gilgal (summer), 
where he tarried • seven days (months). As Saul turned his 
back upon Samuel, i. e., as he left the spring equinox to go 
upon his mission, " God (Aries) gave him another heart" — he 
became the summer Sun (x, 9). Thence it became a proverb, 
"Is Saul also among the prophets?" i. e., Has summer come? 
However, Saul soon made an end of prophesying, and came to 
the high place — the autumnal equinox, the cardinal points 
being all high places, or towers. Here his uncle (winter) 
asked him where he had been. Saul answered, " to seek the 
asses (the constellation Cancer) ; and when we saw they were 
nowhere (i. e., passing Cancer and thus leaving the asses be- 
hind) we came to Samuel " (x, 14) — the Sun and Earth meet 
at the equinoxes. Well, asked his uncle, what said Samuel? 
Why, " he told us plainly the asses were found," but of the 
matter of the kingdom, Saul told him not (x, 16). 

After this " Samuel (Earth) called the people together unto 
the Lord to Mizpeh" (spring equinox), and told them the 



282 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Lord-God (the Ram-Suns) had delivered them out of the hand 
of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that had oppressed 
them (winter and its privations), etc., and they had rejected 
the Gods (Sun-Rams) in asking for a king (x, 19). However, 
Samuel fetched Saul out of the stuff (winter) where he had 
hid himself. As Saul stood before the people, taller than any 
of them from his shoulders up, they shouted: "Let the king 
live" (see marginal reading), i. e., let summer come. But the 
children of Belial (winter months= good-for-nothing fellows) 
didn't think much of Saul as a savior, " So they brought him no 
presents 11 — winter is barren. 

It was now spring when Nahash (the constellation Ophiu- 
chus, or Serpentarius) the Ammonite (a son of Lot = winter) 
came up Ophinchus then rose in the evening) and encamped 
against, i. e., opposite to, Jabesh Gilead (Dry-Sun, the dry sea- 
son having just begun). The Jabeshites, scared at their sup- 
posed enemy, proposed to make a covenant with Nahash. 
This the latter would do, but only on one condition : " That I 
may thrust out all your right eyes," i. e., the summer being- 
passed, I will rise in the east with the sun as you now do, and 
your bright light will fade. The elders of Jabesh asked seven 
days (months) to think of it. This was granted, of course, as 
it would take six months besides the present one to bring this 
thing about. But Saul, hearing of the matter, was very 
wroth, i. e., the heat of the Sun was great. He, therefore, 
took a yoke of oxen (Taurus of spring, and also of autumn), 
and hewed them in (twelve) pieces, and sent them through all 
the coasts of Israel (the twelve zodiacal constellations); and so 
called out all Israel to battle, numbering them in Bezek (thun- 
der and lightnings summer). The fight began in the morn- 
ing (spring) and lasted until the heat of the day (mid-summer), 
when it came to pass that no two of the enemy were left 
together, i. e., half of the winter zodiacal constellations were 
above the horizon, and half below, at sunrise, or at sunset 
(xi, 11). The people now proposed to kill the men that wished 
to make Saul king, but Saul said : " There shall not a man be 
put to death this (solstitial) day;" for the Lord hath wrought 
salvation in Israel to-day (xi, 13), i. e., the harvest was gath- 



JONATHAN. 283 

ered. So the people, at the very time when the days begin to 
shorten, made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal (duplicate 
of gal, a wheel = the zodiac), when they immediately sacrificed 
peace offerings (left the summer solstice), and Saul and all 
Israel rejoiced greatly, i. e., ate of the autumnal fruits and 
drank wine, — winter is before, or opposite to, the Lord, or 
summer. 

Samuel is now grown old and infirm, and, of course, is 
not long for this world (year). Knowing that what he had 
predicted of their king would certainly come to pass, and that 
the people would be greatly dissatisfied thereat, Samuel is 
solicitous to place himself in a favorable light before them. 
For this purpose he challenges them to bring aught against 
his character as their judge. He next recounts what the 
judges, including himself, had done for them ; that they had 
ever delivered them from their enemies ; that under their rule 
they had ever " dwelt safe ;" and he exhorted them to fear the 
Lord and obey him, when all would be right ; Ci but if ye shall 
do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king, 
i. e., the summer will end. To back up his predictions (for 
Samuel was ever a true prophet) he exhibited a specimen of 
his power, — he called unto the Lord, " right in harvest time " 
(out of season, — see Prov. xxvi, 1), and the Lord (the atmos- 
phere) " sent thunder and rain," and scared the people badly. 
(Ignorant people are still in our day frightened at thunder 
and lightning.) 

Jonathan. 

At the end of the second year of Saul's reign, Jonathan 
(gift of summer=the crops), Saul's son, comes upon the stage. 
Saul was in Michmash (the hiding place) of Beth-el (Aries 
setting), while Jonathan was in Gibeah (hill) of Benjamin 
(fall equinox). Here the Philistines, as ever, met them, but 
Jonathan (the food laid by for winter) smote the Philistines, 
i. e., kept the people alive, while they dwelt in caves, in pits, 
in thickets, etc. — wherever they could find shelter, like all 
primitive and savage people, until spring. Saul now failed 



284 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

to come to time ; for while some of the Hebrews (summer 
days) had gone over Jordan (the spring equinox) Saul (the Sun) 
tarried seven days — the fourth of a moon (xiii, 8). In 1 Sam. 
ix, 6, Saul and his servant got lost for the same space of time, 
as indicated by " the fourth part of a shekel of silver." Saul 
was directed by " the man of God " (Sun in Aries), until Samuel 
came out against them (the Earth was in Libra), for to go up to 
the high place (summer solstice). Finding Saul behind time 
" seven days," Samuel could not pardon, but upbraided him, 
and told him he had acted like a fool, and that he would soon 
lose his kingdom (xiii, 13, 14), i. e., that summer was at hand. 
Samuel remained in Gibeah of Benjamin (Earth in Libra) while 
Saul numbered the people that were with him (xiii, 15), about 
six hundred men (the six summer months). This brought Saul 
and Jonathan and the people to Gribeah of Benjamin (the fall 
equinox). Here they met the spoilers in " three companies " 
(xiii, 17), i. e., winter was divided into three parts : Each took 
its proper course ; one went by the way of Ophrah (the fall 
equinox) unto the land of Shual (the jackals winter) ; a second 
went to Beth-horon (the nether), or to the winter solstice ; the 
third, to the land that looketh toward the valley of Zeboim 
(hyenas = win ter). 

We are now told (xiii, 19) that " there was no smith found 
in all Israel." The Israelites went down to the Philistines " to 
sharpen every man his share," etc., i. e., during winter, the 
people repaired their tools, as thrifty people still do. Only 
Saul and Jonathan had sword or spear in the day of battle 
(xiii, 22), i. e., the Sun and the store of provisions alone en- 
abled the people to pass safely through the winter. Saul, like 
Tubal-Cain and Vulcan, was the God of the smithy. Like the 
weather he brings, he was surly and crabbed, and fire was alike 
necessary to warm the person, and heat the metal, hence hell, 
or winter fire, the hottest then known. 

Here we find that on a certain day (autumnal equinox) Jon- 
athan (food) went over to fight the Philistines (winter) unbe- 
known to his father, or the people. Saul tarried (seven days as 
before) in the uttermost part of Gibeah (summer) under a 
pomegranate (the emblem of summer, because of its numerous 



JONATHAN. 285 

seeds) in Migron (place of descents fall equinox), having with 
him about six hundred men=:six months of the year. 

On each side of the passage (autumnal equinox) by which 
Jonathan went down to the Philistines, was a sharp rock ; one 
was called Bozez (shining^ summer), the other, Sen eh (thorn = 
winter). In the fifth, verse they are particularly located ; the 
first (Bozez) was northward over against Michmash (hidden = 
winter), the second (Seneh), southward over against Gibeah 
(summer). 

Jonathan and " the young man that bore his armor " (the 
new year, for the Jewish civil year began at the autumnal equi- 
nox), having passed the western equinox, soon discovered them- 
selves to the Philistines, " for the Lord hath delivered them 
into the hand of Israel" (xiv, 12; see also Judges vii, 11). 
So the Philistines fell before Jonathan, as Joseph's brethren 
fell before him, but his armor-bearer (time) slew after him 
only about twenty men however, for it was healthy ; and this 
was the first slaughter (xiv, 14). 

There were now signs of an earthquake, as the earth 
trembled, and the watchmen of Saul (the two equinoxes) saw 
the multitude (the winter days) melting away. On seeing 
this, Saul (the winter Sun) called to Ahiah (the brother, or 
summer Sun) to bring the ark of the Gods (Sun enters Aries 
— the letter h=the, is prefixed to Elohim in the Hebrew), 
and while talking with the priest, said, " withdraw thine 
hand " (let winter pass). The people (the twelve constella- 
tions) now all " cried together," and " every man's sword was 
against (i. e., opposite) his fellow " (xiv, 20) — winter was ended, 
and the battle passed over into Beth-aven (house of nothing- 
ness = the end of the year). Here, as usual, the people were 
short of food (xiv, 24). But they had reached a land where 
" they found honey {manna) upon the ground," i. e., they had 
reached summer, a the land flowing with milk and honey." 
This manna, or honey, Saul (winter) forbid them to touch, i. e., 
winter produces neither. But Jonathan (the year) ate of it in 
spite of his father. Saul threatened Jonathan, but as the Lord 
liveth (i. e., as long as summer lasted), Saul couldn't hurt 
Jonathan. 



286 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

We can't blame Jonathan, for we are all apt to be- 
smear our bread and butter with honey, and truly it is no 
mean addition. This case of Jonathan reminds us of the 
" sop " prepared by the prudent Sibyl for the grim Cerberus,. 
or dog of Hell = Saul, on a like occasion : 

" No sooner landed, in his den they found 
The triple porter of the Stygian ground, 
Grim Cerberus, who soon began to rear 
His crested snakes, and armed his bristling hair. 
The prudent Sibyl had before prepared 
A sop, in honey steeped, to charm the guard; 
Which, mixed with powerful drugs, she cast before 
His grinning jaws, just ope'd to roar. 
With three enormous mouths he gapes, and straight 
With hunger pressed, devours the pleasing bait." 

Nor must we forget, but ever bear in mind, that it was 
with this self-same " sop " that our Savior detected the traitor 
Judas (John xiii, 26), who, afterward repenting, hanged him- 
self (Mat. xxvii, 5). This is disputed, however, as it is said, 
" falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all 
his bowels gushed out" (Acts i, 18). Of course, both these 
accounts are true, for what is there to hinder a man hanging 
himself by the heels with a rotten rope, and falling headlong, 
bursting asunder in his middle? 

But to return. It is said Saul had three sons (the three 
ancient seasons of the year); Jonathan (giving-Sun = autumn), 
Ishui (empty = winter) and Melchi-shua (king-of-help = spring), 
and two daughters — Merab (increase = summer) and Michal 
( who-is-like-God = winter). 

In the foregoing chapter, we left Saul trying to slay his son 
for tasting a little honey (xv, 43, 44). They met at the spring 
equinox. From hence, Saul is sent by the Lord to smite Am- 
alek (laziness). Preparatory to his campaign, he numbered the 
people in Telaim (lambs=Sun in Aries). He next ordered 
the Kenites (the winter days) to get out of his way, "lest I 
destroy you." " So the Kenites departed," and Saul smote the 
Amalekites (the hot days of summer, that beget laziness). 
However, he took Agag (the flamer=the Sun), king of the 
Amalekites, alive, refusing to kill him. He also saved " the 



JONATHAN". 287 

best of the sheep and oxen (Aries and Taurus in winter)," etc., 
" but destroyed all the refuse," i. e., he prepared for winter. 

The Lord now repented that he had set up Saul for king ; 
it likewise grieved Samuel, for while it deprived the one (the 
Sun) of his strength, it froze the other (the earth). Samuel, 
poor fellow, cried unto the Lord all night (winter). In the 
morning (spring), he came early to meet Saul at Carmel (the 
garden of Eden), but behold, Saul had " passed on " (xv, 12). 
On Samuel's coming up to Saul, Saul exclaimed : " Blessed be 
thou of the Lord ; I have performed the commandments of the 
Lord," i. e., I have the true time, the covenant is made, and I, 
Saul (the Sun), am at the spring equinox. Samuel referred 
Saul to the bleating of the sheep (Aries), and the lowing of the 
oxen (Taurus), in proof of his mistake, and said : u Stay, and I 
will tell thee what the Lord said to me this night " (the past 
winter). Saul answered : " Say on " (xv, 16). So Samuel told 
Saul he was made king when he was little, i. e., when he (the 
Sun) was born at the winter solstice, and that the Lord sent 
him to destroy the Amalekites, etc. 

Saul became sensible of his mistake — that he had indeed 
" transgressed the commandment of the Lord, but it was 
through fear of the people, whose voice he had obeyed (xv, 24), 
i. e., he (the Sun) had moved on in the ecliptic with his usual 
pace, regardless as to the precise time when the year ended. 
At the end of his circuit, he found, by the help of Samuel, 
that he had transgressed his proper limit by seven days, the rate 
being 11 m. 12 sec. annually, or 56 minutes in five years. Saul 
now entreated pardon of Samuel, but as Samuel turned to go 
away, Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent 
"into twelve pieces " = the number of months in the year (see 
1 Kings xi, 30). Upon this Samuel told Saul the Lord had 
rent the kingdom of Israel from him, and given it to his neigh- 
bor (the summer Sun), " a better man than thou " (the winter 
Sun). 

Saul, however, still entreated; "so Samuel turned again 
after Saul (at the end of summer), and Saul worshiped (fell 
down before) the Lord (summer), i. e., the Sun came to his 
southern tropic. Samuel (the Earth) being cold, for it was win- 



288 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ter, said, Bring up hither to me Agag (summer Sun), king of 
the Amalekites (lazy ones). "And Agag came to Samuel 
delicately" i. e., with pleasure or delight, for the root eden, of 
the word translated " delicately," signifies pleasure or delight= 
summer. The meaning is that the warm weather came grad- 
ually. Samuel then said to Agag, "As thy sword (the sick- 
ness of spring) hath made women childless, so shall thy 
mother (Virgo in winter) be childless among women." "And 
Samuel hewed Agag (summer) in pieces before the Lord (sum- 
mer Sun) in Gilgal," i. e., the earth during the summer season 
was divided as in the myth of the creation, into seven parts= 
months as regards the year. Samuel then went to Ramah 
(Earth in Cancer), and Saul went to his house to Gibeah of Saul 
(the southern tropic). Though Samuel came no more to see 
Saul until the day of his death (spring equinox), yet he 
mourned for Saul. It was winter, and earth mourned. 



CHAPTER XYII. 
DAVID. 

AS Saul, the asker and receiver, was winter, so was David, the 
-jLJL- lover and giver, summer. His relations with Saul were 
the same as those of Aaron with Moses ; Aaron being David and 
Moses Saul. It is commonly said that David was a man after 
God's own heart. But why? Because, when the Sun (David) 
enters Cancer, Cod (Aries) comes to his zenith or day meridian 
at sunrise. David was the son of Jesse (Lat. esse =being= the 
year) the Beth-lehemite, Samuel having ceased to mourn for 
Saul (winter was past), was commissioned by the Lord (the 
Sun) to anoint David king of Israel. Samuel disliked this 
office, because he feared Saul would kill him, i. e., that winter 
would follow, but the Lord told him to take a heifer (Earth in 
Taurus) and call Jesse (the year) to the sacrifice. Samuel 
obeyed, and Jesse passed seven of his sons (there were twelve in 
all) before, i. e., opposite to, Samuel, viz., Sagittarius, Capricor- 
nus Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini. These the Lord 
rejected, and called for the eighth = Sun in Cancer=David, 
whom the Lord accepted. Being directed of the Lord, Samuel 
anointed David king of Israel, " in the midst of his brethren," 
i. e., at mid-summer. This done, Samuel departed and went to 
Pamah, i. e., changed places with the Sun (Earth in Cancer). 
In the meanwhile, " the spirit of the Lord (summer) departed 
from Saul, and an evil spirit (winter) from the Lord troubled 
him." Saul's servants saw at once the reason of their poor 
king's alienation and recommended the proper remedy. Let 
our lord (Adoni), said they, have a cunning player upon the 
harp (summer) perform before him. Saul consented ; and 
David (the summer Sun) was sent by his father Jesse upon an 
ass (Sun in Cancer, where are two stars called the asses) unto 
19 



290 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Saul, who instantly fell in love with David and demanded him 
of his father to stand before him. So after this when Saul got 
the hypo, David came opposite him playing upon his harp, and 
Saul was refreshed. 

At the end of David's tune, i. e., at the end of summer, 
those savages, the Philistines, put in their appearance, having 
pitched between Sochoh (summer solstice) and Azekah (winter 
solstice) at Ephes-dammim (end-of-bloods, in allusion to wine- 
makings the fall equinox). Saul and Israel were pitched by 
the valley of the Elah (ha-elah=the place where Aries sets). 
Thus were the parties situated, having the equinox between 
them, when Goliath of Gath (winter) challenged the Israelites 
to choose their man, whom he would meet in single combat. 
Saul and his men " were dismayed and greatly afraid." David, 
however, hearing of the challenge, w r anted to know " what shall 
be done to the man that killeth this Philistine?" The answer 
was that " the king will enrich him with great riches, and 
will give him his daughter" (xvii, 25), i. e., winter being con- 
quered, the summer crops would be gathered as the Sun 
entered Yirgo. 

This w T as enough for David. Saul, however, tried to dis- 
suade him, but David said he had slain a lion (Leo = Hercules' 
first labor) and a bear (Ursa major, directly north of Leo), and 
" this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them." Saul 
then said go. So David took "five smooth stones (the five 
winter months) out of the brook (zodiac), and drew near the 
Philistine, who looked scornfully upon him." David, however, 
confiding in his strength, smote the Philistine (winter) with 
the five stones, and then cut off his head. The men of Israel 
shouted and pursued the Philistines to the gates of Ekron 
(vacuity = end of the year at the spring equinox), where the 
wounded Philistines ail fell. Here Saul was again lost, for he 
didn't know David! He asked Abner (father of light=Sun 
at the spring equinox), the captain {first) of the host (summer 
months), " Whose son is this youth? " Abner answered : a As 
thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell." Brought before Saul, 
David told him he was the son of Jesse, the Beth-lehemite. 

When David " had made an end of speaking unto Saul," 



DAVID. 291 

(i. e., when the Sun had passed into the summer hemisphere,) 
he (Saul) became jealous of David because the people, but 
more particularly the women, praised him. Even Jonathan, 
Saul's son, fell in love with David, and "his love was won- 
derful, passing the love of women ; " yea, his very soul was 
knit (earth's crops are closely related to the Sun) with the soul 
of David. So Jonathan and David made a covenant (the fall 
equinox), when Jonathan (the Earth) stripped himself and gave 
his garments (the crops), his sword (Sun's heat), his bow (the 
rainbow), and even his girdle (the summer hemisphere) to 
David (xviii, 4). 

And notwithstanding David went whithersoever Saul (the 
winter solstice) sent him ; notwithstanding Saul had set him 
over the men of war (the seven summer months) ; notwith- 
standing David pleased all the people and slew the Philistines 
(winter days) without sparing any of them, Saul secretly 
wished David dead, or out of his way, and did actually seek 
his life. Twice did Saul, while David was playing on his harp 
(the seven summer months) to divert him, hurl his javelin at 
David — once, at the summer solstice, when the days began to 
shorten, and again, at the fall equinox, when the length of the 
night began to prevail over that of the day — and twice did 
David avoid it. flee and escape, because the Lord (summer) was 
with David, and not with Saul (winter). "All Israel and Ju- 
dah loved David because he went out and came in before 
them," — summer and winter alternate. 

Saul, although he hated David so excessively, promised 
him his daughter Merab (mother-of-a-multitude = Virgo in 
spring) to wife, but before the time (Sun in Yirgo) David 
should have had her, she was given to Adriel (God's, or the 
Ram's flock=summer) the Meholathite (the dancer = summer). 
But Michal, Saul's younger daughter, loved David, and Saul 
said, " I will give him her, that she may become a snare to 
him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him," 
i. e., the Sun leaving Yirgo, winter soon succeeds ! David, at 
first, did not relish the idea of becoming the king's son-in-law, 
but soon became reconciled, and was not only willing to take 
Saul's daughter, Michal, but would give something for her. The 



292 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

price fixed upon by her father was " 100 foreskins " (scalps) of 
the Philistines. David would give more ! So " he and his 
men arose, and went and slew T 200 Philistines, and gave their 
foreskins (scalps) in full tale to the king, that he might become 
the king's son-in-law T ! " and Michal (who is like God= Virgo 
rising in conjunction with the Sun), became David's wife. 
Now let us pause, and while we can scarce repress a hearty 
giggle, seek the solution of this smutty myth. Our clergy, 
and they certainly know, tell us that a proper understanding 
of these Bible stories is of the utmost importance ; that our 
very happiness both here and hereafter depends upon it ; and 
we are half inclined to agree with them, but with this differ- 
ence — possessed of their true solution, we would never after 
frequent their shops, or be seen in their company ! To our 
business, however : Bearing in mind that the southern con- 
stellations are the Philistines, and the northern, the Israelites, 
and that the summer solstice, the home of David, or the Sun, 
was between Cancer and Leo — conceive this to be the case. 
Then, as the Sun rose, in the morning, Pisces and Aquarius 
would be above the western horizon (see the zodiac). During 
the following month the Sun (David) would traverse Leo, and 
Pisces (Aquarius having set) alone would remain above the 
horizon at sunrise. Aquarius or 100 scalps Of the Philistines 
would, therefore, be all Saul could ask for Michal. But to 
possess the whole of Michal (Virgo), the Sun (David) must 
traverse both Leo and Virgo, and thus slay and scalp,, by the 
setting of Aquarius and Pisces, the 200 Philistines! Thus 
Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that 
Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David — Sun in Virgo. 

It is autumn, and Jonathan (Earth with its crops) comes 
again upon the stage. Saul (winter) orders Jonathan and his 
servants to kill David (the Summer Sun). Being averse to 
this, Jonathan told David to hide himself in a secret place (the 
winter hemisphere) and abide there until the morning (spring). 
So Jonathan stood beside his father (food sustains us during 
winter) and plead for David, and so wrought him up in David's 
favor, that he swore " as the Lord liveth he shall not be slain ; " 
so David was not slain. 



DAVID. 293 

Soon again, on the approach of spring, there was war, and 
David slew the Philistines (the first-born of Egypt, — Ex. xii, 
29) as before. Saul, as usual about this time, became crazy 
and sought David's life. Michal (Yirgo), David's wife, how- 
ever, let him through the window {light-hole— spring equinox) 
and thus saved him. At the same time she took an image 
(Heb. teraphim— the earth) and put it in the bed (Earth in 
conjunction with the winter constellations in succession), and 
when Saul asked for David, she said David is sick (she iibbed 
a little, for the Sun is sick only in winter). Saul, however, 
ordered, saying : Bring him up to me in the bed that I may 
slay him (xix, 15). But " when the messengers were come in, 
behold there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' 
hair for his bolster" (xix, 16). The translation of the last 
half of this verse is bad. A literal translation of the original 
would read: "A rolling up of the goats at his heading " = 
Capricorn in his zenith, the place of the Sun at the summer 
solstice. " Goats'* hair " is not even hinted at. Disappointed 
of his prey, Saul scolded his daughter, but she excused herself, 
saying David wanted to go and she let him go ! So David 
fled and escaped, and came to Samuel (Earth) at Ramah (high- 
place = spring equinox), where he told Samuel all that Saul 
(winter) had done to him (Earth in spring is dreary and 
desolate). After this, they dwelt together in Naioth (the 
summer months). To Naioth Saul sent messengers to take 
David, but the spirit of the Gods (Elohim, or Aries, during 
summer) came upon them and they prophesied. So he sent a 
second, even a third time, with the like result. Finally, he 
w T ent himself, when he, in turn, became a prophet. He even 
stripped off his clothes (the clouds of winter, or the rainy 
season,) and prophesied before Samuel as he was — naked (the 
cloudless sun). " Wherefore it is said, is Saul also among the 
prophets ? " 

David, having left Naioth (summer), comes before Jonathan 
(the Crops in autumn) and inquires of him concerning his 
father's disposition toward him. Jonathan assures David he 
shall not die. " Whatsoever thy soul desireth I will even do 
it for thee " (xx, 4). David informs Jonathan that " to-morrow 



294 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

is the new moon, and I should (ought) not fail to sit with the 
king at meat " (the ingathering feast). David, however, begged 
to be excused and hid himself until the third day in the field 
(zodiac), i. e., until the winter solstice. Thence he went to 
Beth-lehem, "his city" (v. 6), where there was a yearly feast 
(marginal reading) for all the family. David gave Jonathan 
directions how to ascertain his father's disposition toward him. 
If Saul, on learning David's whereabouts, said : " It is well," 
he would "have peace "= summer ; if he appeared to be 
"very wroth," evil = winter. 

Jonathan and David then departed together into the field 
(Zodiac), when the former addressed the latter (xx, 12), "O 
Lord God of Israel " (which identifies David as the Sun at 
the summer solstice). About three days (months) after this 
(at the fall equinox) Jonathan would ascertain his father's dis- 
position toward David, and report. David, on his part, swore 
that he would stick to Jonathan. The next day (xx, 18), it 
was the new moon, when David's seat (the summer solstice) 
would be empty. After the next three days (months), David 
would " go down quickly " (the Sun appears to move faster in 
winter than in summer) to the place where he had previously 
hidden himself. This was by the "stone Ezel " = the stone of 
departure = the winter solstice (xx, 19). Jonathan would then 
shoot three arrows (the Sun's rays during the next three 
months), as though at a mark (the spring equinox), and send 
"a lad" (the new year's Sun) to find them. Such was- the 
conference between David and Jonathan. Accordingly David 
hid himself (the summer became the winter Sun), and when 
the new moon was come, i. e., when the new year began, Saul 
sat upon his seat by the wall (the tropic of Capricorn) with 
Abner (father-of-light) by his side, David's place (the tropic of 
Cancer) being empty (v. 25). " Saul spake not anything that 
day," thinking something was wrong — " surely he is not clean," 
i. e., is not bright — does not shine as in summer (xx, 26). 
The second day (month) Saul asked Jonathan where " the son 
of Jesse" (the summer Sun) was. Jonathan, in answer, gave 
the excuse agreed upon, when Saul's anger was kindled (the 
Sun shone a little brighter) against Jonathan, and he exclaimed : 



DAVJX. 295 

" Thou son of the perverse, rebellious woman /" The word 
" woman " was interpolated because of the gender of the words 
translated "perverse, rebellious.' 1 Correctly rendered, the 
passage would read, "Thou son of her falling away and 
going down opposite" — Yirgo was then setting. In the 
strictest sense, Jonathan is the son of Yirgo, since the crops 
grow during the six months of summer, at the end of which 
the Sun is found in Yirgo. " Do not I know," continues Saul, 
"that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thy shame, and 
unto the shame of thy mother's nakedness" ( u pudenda ")t 
i. e., " don't I know that winter produces not," as is explained 
in the following verse : " For as long as the son of Jesse liveth 
upon the ground (i. e., so long as the Sun is below the equator), 
thou shalt not be established in thy kingdom " (summer) — the 
crops don't grow in winter. Wherefore, " he shall surely die " 
(xx, 31). Jonathan asked why ; but Saul threw a javelin (the 
end of the year) at him (David). Thus Jonathan knew that 
his father meant to kill David. So he (Jonathan) arose from 
the table and did eat no more meat (food was becoming scarce, 
and Lent was at hand). The next morning (at the spring 
equinox), at the time appointed, Jonathan met David, and " the 
little lad " (the spring Sun, for so it was pictured) was with 
him. He sent the little boy to recover his arrows (the Sun's 
lost rays), though the boy knew nothing about them. To this 
boy Jonathan gave his " artillery " (thunder and lightnings 
" heaven's artillery "), and told him to carry it (not " them." 
for Webster says " the word has no plural ") to the city. After 
the lad was gone, David came up from the South, when he and 
Jonathan hugged and kissed each other, and wept together 
(latter rain), until David was grown great — until the crops 
were grown. Jonathan then told David he might go ; he had 
no further use for him ! 

David next arrived at Nob (the summer solstice), where he 
met Ahimelech (brother of the king, — the solstices were 
always brothers) the priest. Ahimelech was somewhat scared 
(see xvi, 4). David, however, demanded five loaves of bread, 
or what there is present " (xxi, 3). Ahimelech told him there 
was no " common bread ;" but, " if the young men have kept 



296 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

themselves from women," there was hallowed bread (it was 
then harvest time). David assured Ahimelech the priest that 
"women have been kept from us about three days" (months; 
for it was about three months since David, or the Sun, " came 
out " of, or left the spring equinox, where he met Yirgo). So 
Ahimelech gave him " hallowed bread," i. e., bread made from 
the new crop (xxi, 6). 

Doeg (fear = winter solstice) was here found detained before, 
or opposite to, the Lord (summer solstice). Doeg was the 
''chiefest of Saul's herdmen " (the winter constellations). 
David, as if in fear of him, asked for a sword. The priest 
(the priest is a great lover of the sword) gave him the sword 
of Goliath, whom David slew in the valley of Elah (Eljah, 
near the spring equinox). With this sword David went 
boldly to Achish (anger) =Abimelech= winter solstice. Here 
he got frightened, i. e., was sore afraid of Achish the king of (rath 
(winter). So he changed his behavior before them, and feigned 
himself mad, and scrabbled (frosted) on the doors, and let his 
spittle fall down on his bread " (xxi, 13), as he is seen to do 
every winter. Achish, having no use for madmen, sent him 
away. 

At the end of the preceding chapter we left David with 
Achish (winter solstice), whence he departed and escaped to 
the cave of Adullam ( just-people = spring). Here David made 
himself captain over all in distress, over all the discontented, 
and over all debtors (the people just out of winter), and 
went thence to Mizpah of Moab (tower of the water-father = the 
fall equinox) ; not to Mizpah of G-ilead (tower of the witness- 
heap^the spring equinox). Thence he took his father (Jesse 
= winter solstice), and mother (the same was his wife) before 
the king of Moab (Aquarius), and left them there all the while 
he dwelt in the hold (the winter hemisphere). The prophet 
G-ad (Aries then on his meridian) told David to depart and 
go unto the land of Judah (spring). So David departed and 
came to Hareth (a thicket =summer), where he discovered him- 
self, i. e., the fruits began to appear. Saul (the opposite of 
David) said to the Benjaminites (left-hand men), his servants 
(for fall serves winter), this " son of Jesse (David) will soon 



DAVID. 297 

give you every one fields, vineyards, etc. ; that they had all 
conspired against him ; that his son (Jonathan = the crops) had 
made a league with David, and that not one of them was sorry 
for him," etc., all which was true ! Poor Saul ! ! 

Doeg (fear = winter) told Saul he saw David coming to 
Nob (summer solstice), to Ahimelech (brother-king) the son of 
Ahitub (good-brother) ; that Ahimelech inquired of the Lord 
for him and gave him victuals (the fruits of the season) and the 
sword (the solar ray) of Goliath, the Philistine (the genius of 
winter). Saul sent for Ahimelech, who, on call, answered, 
" Here I am, my Lord " (xxii, 12). On being arraigned for 
conspiracy with David against his king, Ahimelech wanted to 
know " who of all thy servants is so faithful as David, which 
is the king's son-in-law?" "He goeth at thy bidding (Saul 
was David's father, as winter is the father of summer), and is 
honorable in thine house" (the year). The king need not accuse 
him, for he " knew nothing of all this, less or more " (xxii, 16). 

Nevertheless, Saul pronounced sentence of death upon 
Ahimelech and all his father's house, and at once ordered his 
footmen (summer days) that stood about him to slay the priests 
of the Lord (summer months), but they failed or refused to ex- 
ecute his command, i. e., summer could not come opposite 
summer. Disappointed, Saul next directed Doeg, the Edomite, 
to "turn (he could not slay without turning) and fall upon the 
priests." Doeg did as bid, and slew " fourscore and five persons 
that did wear a linen ephod" (xxii, 18)= the number of days to 
the fall equinox. The linen ephod denoted summer. Doeg not 
only smote Nob, but he smote both men and women, children 
and sucklings, oxen, asses and sheep ; he spared nothing ; 
* none escaped save Abiathar (the crops), who went with David. 
These two acquainted each other of the mishaps of the slaugh- 
ter, and abode together in full faith that all in the end would 
come out right. Food supports the people during winter. 

David is now told that the Philistines are fighting against 
Keilah (in Keilah, in the Hebrew), and that they are robbing 
the threshing-floor, i. e., they are using up the stores laid by 
for winter. David (the Sun) inquired of the Lord if he should 
go and smite the Philistines. The Lord (Sun at summer sol- 



298 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

stice) said go. But David's men said, " we be afraid here in 
Judali (summer solstice, where the days begin to shorten), how 
much more, then, if we come to Keilah (winter) among the 
Philistines. " David inquired of the Lord yet again " (xxiii, 4), 
i. e., literally, " he added to Sited (Hell or winter) in the Lord," 
by which we may understand, the Sun having passed Leo, 
another month of summer is gone, and consequently Sheol, 
Hell or winter is one month nearer. However, the Lord told 
David "to go down to Keilah, and he would there deliver the 
Philistines into his hands." So David went and saved the 
people of Keilah. 

Abiathar (father of plenty = summer), the son of Ahimelech 
(the king's brother), met David in Keilah with an ephod in his 
hand. (The ephod was a girdle or belt, consisting of two parts ; 
one covered the back — winter ; the other, the front — summer. 
On each part were engraved six names of the tribes of Israel). 
Consequently Abiathar as he came to the autumnal equinox — 
to Keilah, having his ephod bearing the names of the six sum- 
mer months, in his hand, gave it over to Saul — winter. Saul 
in the meanwhile, having heard that David was in Keilah, 
knew, of course, that God (Aries sets just then) had delivered 
him into his hand (xxiii, 7). 

Saul now began his siege. David, at the same time, aware 
that Saul meant mischief, began to entreat the Lord God (Sum- 
mer Sun) to know whether he and his men would be given 
into the hand of Saul. The Lord said : " He will come down," 
but "they will deliver thee up" (xxiii, 12). Poor David, thn* 
deprived of his kingdom, now took 600 men. (the six winter 
months), and departing out of Keilah, " went whithersoever 
they could go." Though Saul was aware of David's escape, 
he " forbare to go forth " as yet, for it was not the proper time. 
So David abode in the wilderness of Ziph (the rainy season), 
and though Saul sought him every day, God (Aries) did not 
give him up to Saul. 

Jonathan (the winter stores), Saul's son, told David he 
need not fear his father ; for said he, " my father shall not find 
thee." The summer Sun is not to be found in winter. "Thou 
shalt be king over Israel (the four summer months), and I 



DAVID. 299 

(the harvest) shall be next unto thee." This my father know- 
eth (xxiii, 17). Making a covenant with Jonathan, David 
abode in the wood (or rather, solitude ; for horesh, here trans- 
lated wood, means silence). The Ziphites (they of the rainy 
season, or winter) suspected, and told Saul so, that David was 
lurking about, perhaps in the wood (solitude) of Hachilah (dark- 
ness= winter); or in Maon (rest= winter solstice). Saul sought 
David ; David avoided Saul. When Saul went on this side of 
the mountain, David went on that side, i. e., winter and sum- 
mer alternate. At length Saul was called to fight the hateful 
Philistines, and David, the while, took refuge in the strong- 
holds of En-gedi (goat-foun tain = Capricorn = winter solstice.) 

When Saul returned from chasing the Philistines, he at 
once sought for David with 3,000 men (the three remaining 
months of winter). Unluckily Saul stopped in a cave (the 
winter solstice) " to cover his feet" (to ease himself, — Jud. iii, 
24, — i. e. to turn the solstice). David, who was just inside the 
cave, seeing his opportunity, " cut off the skirt of Saul's robe," 
i. e., the nights began to grow shorter. After this, Saul (the 
winter Sun) " rose up out of the cave." David arose after- 
ward, went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, who on turn- 
ing, saw the skirt of his robe in David's hands. The son-in- 
law now playfully reproaches the father-in-law, asking if the 
king was in pursuit of a dead dog (the winter just ended) or a 
ilea (the approaching summer). If the latter, he might need to 
observe the advice of Tusser : 

"While wormwood hath seed, get a handful or twaine, 
To save against March, to make flea to refraine." 

When David had finished speaking, Saul lifted up his voice 
and wept (the latter rain); confessed his evil ways, acknowl- 
edged David's righteousness, and knowing that David would 
soon be king, made him swear that he would not cut off his 
seed after him, nor destroy his name out of his father's house. 
So David sware unto Saul, and when Saul went home, David 
and his men got them into the hold (winter). 

Here we have the record of Samuel's death and burial 
in Pamah=high place=spring equinox=the end of the year. 



300 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

David arose after this, came to the summer solstice, " and went 
down to the wilderness of Paran (the dug-out = winter hemi- 
sphere), where he found a man (Aquarius) "in Maon (rest = 
winter solstice), whose possessions were in Carmel " (xxv, 2). 
This man was very rich ; his nocks were numbered by thou- 
sands. Nabal (folly) was his name. He was a very churlish 
kind of fellow, and much like Saul. As often happens with 
such men, he had a beautiful wife, Abigail (daughter of a 
noble father = the Sun) by name. " She was a woman of good 
understanding," being the same with Virgo. She pleased " the 
man after God's own heart," much more than her husband's 
great riches, since he was a great lover of women, his name 
itself signifying love. So David instantly set on foot his 
scheme of obtaining her for his wife. Hearing that Xabal was 
shearing his sheep (earth is shorn of its crops in winter), David 
sent ten young men (the number of months in the old year) to 
beg of Nabal something to eat. Nabal, to whom David was a 
stranger, did not think fit to part with his stores. This, in 
David's view, was just cause for war. So he equipped, at the 
end of winter, and sent up 400 men (the constellations Aries, 
Taurus, Gemini and Cancer), while 200 (Leo and Yirgo) abode 
by the stuff (cafo'm=instniments=scales=Libra). Thus he was 
in precisely the same position as when he began fighting for 
the " 200 foreskins" of the Philistines. One of the young 
men (Leo) told Abigail (Yirgo) that Xabal (winter) had refused 
to give them food, and that David was about to punish him for 
his stinginess. Abigail (Yirgo) forthwith mounted her ass 
(the Sun's ecliptic), and, taking provisions (the harvests), went 
after David, whom she met at the covert of the hill (Sun in 
Yirgo). David was talking to himself, and threatening ven- 
geance (wine-making) upon his enemies. He would cut off, 
that he would, all that pertaineth to ISTabal, and leave not 
" any that pisseth against the wall " — meaning, of course, all 
the males. The expression is rather indecent, but it is in the 
infallible Book. Thus we see that, like most of the men of 
God, David was after the women. When Abby saw David, 
she lighted from her ass, and fell before David (Sun in Yirgo). 
She now told David her husband was a good-for-nothing (Be- 



DAVID. 301 

Hal) old fool, and advised him to let all his enemies " be as 
Nabal " — fools (xxv, 26). She then presented him with the 
provisions (the crops) she had brought with her, and told Da- 
vid a man (Saul, Nabal, or Winter) had risen to pursue 
him: one who would seek his soul (apparent heat), but that 
his soul would " be bound in the bundle of life " (latent heat) ; 
that notwithstanding, it would reappear when the Lord shall 
have appointed him ruler over Israel, i. e., when summer 
comes ; and asks him to remember her then, i. e., to have sex- 
ual connection with her. This would happen in the following 
spring, at the time of the annunciation of the Virgin Mary. 
David was in ecstasies. He hugged and kissed Abby, and 
said : " Blessed be the God of Israel which sent thee this day 
to meet me " (Aries was just setting) ; and added that " except 
thou hadst hasted, and come to meet me, surely there had not 
been left unto Nabal, by the morning light (spring), any that 
pisseth against the wall " (xxv, 24). This elegant expression 
will be explained farther ahead. 

So David not only took the presents Abby had brought him, 
but he distinctly said to her: "I have hearkened to thy voice 
(her adulterous propositions), and have accepted thy person," 
i. e., enjoyed her as his wife (xxv, 35). Truly this familiarity 
both of word and deed boded no good to Nabal, but augured 
Ins speedy death. Accordingly, when Abby next met her 
husband, she found him feasting and "very drunken." What 
an opportunity ! Abby, the wife, didn't lose it. She waited 
until he was sober, i. e., until spring, when she told him 
" these things," i. e., her amour with David. Poor Nabal was 
dumbfounded, and " his heart died within him," for Abby had 
poisoned him. In ten days Nabal was dead ! The murderous 
deed was, of course, charged upon the Lord (xxv, 38). 

At the news of Nabal's death, David was hilarious, and re- 
joiced greatly. He, at once, took Abby " to him to wife." 
Abby was not slow on her part. Besides her, David also took 
Ahinoam (my brother's beauty) of Jezreel (the Earn will sow). 
So David had two wives, or rather one with two different 
names. "But Saul (winter) had given Michal (who is like 
Aries=earth in Virgo) to Phalti (Lord's Savior= Moses), the 



302 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

son of Laish (Leo, Aquarius being its opposite), which was of 
Gal Km " (fountains). 

Winter has come again, and the Ziphites (rainy days) have 
come to Saul (winter Sun) to Gibeah (autumnal equinox) to 
inquire of him if David (summer Sun) hasn't hid himself in 
Hachilah (darkness = winter), which is before Jeshimon (deso- 
late, or winter Sun). Saul took 3,000 men (the first half of 
winter) and went down to Ziph (mid-winter) and pitched in 
Hachilah (darkness). David watched Saul, and went with 
Abishai (father of precious things=summer) to the place where 
Saul and Abner (father of lights Aries), the captain of Saul's 
host (the winter constellations), were. They found them en- 
camped "in the trench " (winter solstice, at which time Aries 
comes to his meridian). Saul was asleep ; his spear was stuck 
in the ground at the head of his bolster (winter solstice). 
Abishai (summer) wished to dispatch him at once ; but David, 
more prudent, would save his life. So David took his spear 
(winter solstice) and cruse of water (Aquarius) and went over 
to the other side, to the top of a hill (summer solstice). From 
this stand David called to Abner (Aries) and reproached him, 
saying : " Art not thou a valiant man ? " etc. Saul knew David's 
voice, and the two conferred together, i. e., met at the fall 
equinox. David again told his father-in-law he was "in search 
of a flea " (xxvi, 20) — that he was playing the fool ; to which 
Saul confessed, and said he had erred exceedingly. David 
then returned Saul his spear, saying he would on no account 
stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed. So Saul 
blessed his son-in-law, and told him he should do great things 
and prevail. David then went on his way, and Saul returned 
to his place, i. e., summer ended and winter began. 

But Saul (winter) is again after David (summer), and the 
poor fellow, thus driven to despair, thinks he will one day 
perish at the hand of Saul. He concludes, however, that his 
safety is with the naughty Philistines, to whom he repaired 
with 600 men (six summer months) unto Achish (anger), the 
son of Maoch (the poor one), king of Gath (winter). He 
applied to Achish for a homestead. Achish gave him Ziglag 
(outlet of a fountain = winter solstice); wherefore Ziglag per- 



DAVID. 303 

taineth to Judah (summer solstice) to this day — the two sol- 
stices will always pertain to each other. David dwelt with the 
Philistines a a fall year and four months" says our corrupt 
translation. The literal of the Hebrew is " days and four 
months "=the duration of winter according to the old division 
of the year. Leaving the kingdom of Achish, David invaded 
the Geshurites (from geshur=& bridge=spring equinox), and 
the Gezrites (the deciders = harvest days) and the Amalekites 
(lazy ones) ; for, says the account, these people were of old 
inhabitants of the land (summer) even unto Shur (wall = fall 
equinox) and the land of Egypt (winter). David smote the 
land, leaving nothing behind him, i. e., summer came and 
went. On his return, Achish (winter) wished to know where 
lie had been. David replied that he had been " against the 
south of Judah (summer solstice), against the south of the 
Jerahmeelites (the merciful Kams=summer), and against the 
south of the Kenites" (dwellers in birds' nests=:young birds), 
i. e., he had passed the summer season. On the principle that 
dead men tell no tales, he slew both men and women, lest 
through them the Philistines might learn his true character. 

Achish was completely deceived, for he believed all David 
told him ; that he had made his people abhor him, and he 
would, therefore, retain him a slave forever. Here we again 
end at winter. 

The Philistines (naughty fellows) again threatening trouble, 
Achish, consulting with David, said : " Know thou assuredh* 
that thou shalt go out with me to battle," i. e., the two sol- 
stices shall move off at the same time, in the same direction, to 
fight the battle of the year. Achish and David were associ- 
ated, as were Moses and Aaron ; in fact the two parties were 
identical. On the promise of allegiance, Achish made David 
" keeper of his head forever" (xxviii, 2), i. e., the year will 
begin at the summer solstice. 

Samuel (Earth) was dead and buried in Pamah (high-place 
^spring equinox), where he was conceived, i. e., where the 
Jewish ecclesiastical year began. The Philistines, with David 
at their head, had pitched at Shunem (peace=summer solstice), 
while Saul and his host were at Gilboa (boiling fountain = the 



304 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

place of the earth at the summer solstice). Saul, seeing David's 
advantage, and his own unfavorable position, " was afraid, and 
his heart greatly trembled." He, therefore, began to inquire 
of the Lord, but the Lord answered him not ; neither by 
dreams, for he was out of his season, being the genius of win- 
ter; nor by Urim (light = the east), for he was not there; nor 
by the prophets (constellations), because he was no longer their 
leader. Thus he was every way in a bad fix ; what to do he 
didn't know. He had put all the witches out of the land 
(Virgo had set the year before), and what could he do? In 
this, his great strait, he told his servants (the constellations) to 
seek him a woman at En-dor (fount of the dwellings. spring 
equinox), Yirgo setting. Saul, suspecting what might happen, 
disguised himself (he, Capricorn, being a disguised, or day con- 
stellation until after mid-summer), and went with his two 
servants (the solstices) to see the woman (Yirgo) by night 
(Capricorn sets before the Sun enters Yirgo). Saul made 
known his errand, but the old woman, not recognizing him, 
reminded him that Saul had cut off all the witches, and signi- 
fied that he might seek to betray her. Saul swore : "As the 
Lord liveth (for it was yet summer), there shall no punishment 
happen to thee for this thing" (xxviii, 10). Then said the 
woman, being reassured, whom shall I bring up to thee ? Saul 
answered, Samuel! Now, when the woman (Yirgo, as she 
rises with the Sun) saw Samuel, she knew it w T as Saul (for 
winter was just at hand) who had consulted her. Frightened, 
she exclaimed, why hast thou deceived me, for thou art Saul ? 
The king said : " Be not afraid," and asked what she saw. She 
replied that she saw "gods (Elohim) ascending out of the 
earth" (Aries was about to become a night constellation). 
Saul asked: "What form is he (Samuel) of?" The witch 
answered: "He is an old man covered with a mantle" (earth 
with its crops). Saul, knowing it was Samuel, bowed himself 
to the ground (Capricorn came to his meridian). 

Samuel didn't like to be disturbed just then, for winter 
would soon be upon him. He listened with evident impa- 
tience to Saul's complaints, and told him, in answer, that all 
his troubles were through his own fault ; that if the Lord had 



DAVID. 305 

departed from him (summer was gone), it was because he had 
not obeyed him ; that he had not executed the fierce wrath 
(the hot weather of summer) of the Lord upon Amalek (lazi- 
ness). " Moreover, the Lord will deliver Israel (summer) with 
thee into the hand of the Philistines ; to-morrow shalt thou 
and thy sons be with me," i. e., winter will then begin. '• Then 
Saul fell straightway all along on the earth (the shadow, made 
by the Sun with an object at mid-day in winter, is longest) and 
was sore afraid because of Samuel's words, and there was no 
strength (heat) in him " (xxviii, 20). But when the woman 
came to Saul (Sun in Virgo), she saw at once his trouble — he 
was hungry. She reminded him of the risks she had under- 
gone on his account ; however, she had brought him some 
bread, which he must eat. Saul refused, but his servants and 
the woman compelled him. He was now able to rise and sit 
upon his bed (winter). This generous woman, besides her 
bread, had a fat calf (Taurus) in her house (Yirgo and Taurus 
are northern constellations). " She hasted and killed it," i. e., 
Taurus set in the west, while Yirgo came to her zenith. She 
(the witch) didn't give any of the " fat calf" to Saul and his 
party, however, but baked them unleavened bread, and gave it 
to Saul and his servants, and they did eat. They then rose up 
and went away that night " (winter), i. e., the winter constel- 
lations ascended into the upper or day hemisphere, and spring 
came. 

Here we find the Philistines gathered together in Aphek 
(in the day hemisphere), while the Israelites were pitched by a 
fountain (the latter rain) in Jezreel (seed-time), where these 
parties were left at the end of the preceding chapter. The 
Lords of the Philistines (winter constellations) passed on by 
hundreds and by thousands ; but David (the Sun) and his men 
(the northern constellations) followed in their rear with Achish 
— an excellent description of the apparent motion of the 
heavens at this season. It must be here observed that the 
northern constellations begin their ascent into the upper hem- 
isphere, while the southern begin to descend into the opposite 
hemisphere ; and that at mid-summer they are equally divided 
at sunrise, one half of each being on either side of the equi- 
20 



306 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

noctial line. This feature of the heavens, the mythologist 
now takes notice of. The Philistines object to the company 
of the Hebrews, Achish, however, who had been in David's 
company for days and years, found no fault with him. He had 
performed his part faithfully and well, i. e., the two (solstices) 
had always been in perfect unison. Nevertheless, the Philis- 
tines objected to David's fighting with them, " lest in the bat- 
tle he be an adversary to us " (v. 4). He was the David of 
whom the women sang — "Saul has slain his thousands, and 
David his tens of thousands," and of course, was not to be 
trusted. Achish, therefore, in a friendly w r ay, told David he 
found no fault with him ; he had acted uprightly and honor- 
ably with him, but as the lords of the Philistines objected 
(placed themselves opposite to him), he would, with great 
respect, advise him to return " in peace." "But what have I 
done ?" asked David, and "what hast thou found in thy ser- 
vant, while I have been before thee ? " i. e., opposite thee, as 
the summer solstice is opposed to the winter solstice. Ach- 
ish (winter solstice), in answer, said to David : " I know that 
thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God (Aries), but the 
Philistines have said : He shall not go with us to battle." 
Wherefore, Achish, as a friend, advised David to rise early on 
the next morning and depart. David did as advised, and went 
into the land of the Philistines, while the Philistines went up 
to Jezreel, i. e., summer departed and winter came on. 

At the end of the previous chapter (xxix) we left the two 
parties opposed to each other. The Philistines, or winter con- 
stellations, were in the ascendant, i. e., rising ; while the sum- 
mer constellations were retiring, or going down. Three days 
(months) later, David came to Ziklag (the winter solstice), 
where he found the Amalekites (lazy ones) " had invaded the 
south (Taurus had set) and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and 
burnt it with fire."* " They slew not any, great or small, 
but carried them away." Now let us look at the aspect of 
the heavens. The Sun is at his winter solstice ; Taurus is 
below the horizon, and Yirgo above it. She is not at either 



* At sunrise, the Sun being in either solstice, the solstices seem to coincide with the 
equinoxes; hence they are said to he smitten — burnt with fire=the Sun. 



DAVID. 307 

equinox, East or West, where she would be Ahinoam (sister of 
a noble brother), or Abigail (sister of a noble father). David 
was greatly distressed at the loss of his wives, " for the people 
spake of stoning him" (rendering him unfruitful), which 
would be most unlucky, not only for David and his wives, but 
" because the soul of all the people was grieved (it was cold), 
every man for his son and his daughter." David, however, 
took refuge in the Lord his G-od (the following summer), and 
said to Abiathar (father of plenty), the son of Ahimeleck 
(king's brother = summer solstice), "Bring me hither the 
ephod " (a sacerdotal upper garment said to be symbolic of the 
fruitful part of the year, and likened, as Dr. Inman thinks, 
" to the female yoni, and like it, was beautifully embroidered 
with fine needle work." (Anc. Faiths, vol. i, p. 487). This 
would bring David (the Sun) up to the spring equinox. 

At this place he inquired of the Lord if he should pursue 
this troop (gadud, from gad, a ram,— Aries during summer). 
The Lord said pursue and recover all, i. e., the crops at 
the end of summer. David went with 600 men (six sum- 
mer months) to the brook Besor (glad tidings = summer sol- 
stice). Here he had 200 men left (the last two months of 
summer=Leo and Yirgo). They were behind because they 
hadn't yet crossed the brook. Having the 400 men (the first 
four months of summer) in his possession, he went on to get 
the balance. Xow hold : two summer constellations are yet 
in the lower hemisphere ; consequently their opposites are 
above the equator at sunrise. One of these is Aquarius, " a 
young man of Egypt " (winter), and servant to an Amalekite 
(Taurus, which is in quartile aspect with Aquarius). Hence 
Taurus is the master, because ascending, while Aquarius is 
descending — sick. His sickness began three days (months) 
before, when Aquarius commenced his descent to the lower 
regions. 

This young man told David they had invaded the south 
of the Cherethites (the Philistines), the coast of Judah, the 
south of Caleb (the dog= constellation Canis), and had burnt 
Ziklag with fire = the Sun. David asked the young man 
(Aquarius) "to bring him down to this company." This lie 



308 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

would do provided David would first swear that "he would 
neither kill him, nor deliver him into his master's hands." 
ISTow observe : Aquarius was opposite the Sun (David) in Leo. 
Precisely six months later the Sun entered Aquarius. Yirgo 
and Leo were then above the western horizon, about to set. 
David had kept his oath ; for as Aquarius came to his merid- 
ian, he began to ascend, while Taurus was at the same time 
descending. The Sun coming in conjunction with Aquarius, 
we find the 400 men (Libra, Scoi*pio, Sagittarius and Capri- 
cornus) that had just escaped (fled,— xxx, 17), above the east- 
ern horizon. Thus David, in passing around the circle, 
recovered both his wives (Yirgo at both equinoxes) and all 
that the Amalekites had taken away. He also now met the 
two hundred men (Yirgo and Leo) that stopped at the brook 
Besor, because they were faint and couldn't get over, and 
saluted them — " asked them how they did " (see marginal 
reading). Yirgo and Leo are opposite Pisces and Aquarius. 

Then all the wicked men and men of Belial (good-for- 
nothing fellows — David wasn't particular about the company 
he kept) refused to give those that remained behind bv the 
stuff (ctf/?'=instruments=Libra, i. e., the winter months,) any 
of the spoil ; but David overruled and divided it, as related in 
the concluding verses of this chapter, to the several months of 
the year, ending with Hebron (the crossings the equator). 

Leaving Hebron, the divide between summer and winter, 
we now come to the final battle between the Hebrews and 
Philistines (1 Samuel). Israel fled ingloriously before the 
Philistines and fell down wounded in Mount Gilboa (winter 
solstice), leaving Saul, their king, and his sons at the mercy 
of the enemy. The Philistines followed hard upon Saul and 
his sons, slaying Jonathan (the provisions), Abinadab (giving- 
father) and Melchishua (saving-king), Saul's sons. Thus poor 
Saul was left alone in the battle-field, but not long, for the 
archers (the rainbows of spring) soon fell upon him, and to 
save himself from these uncircumcised, half-year men, he fell 
upon his own sword and died (winter ended) ; so also did his 
armor-bearer (the opposite point in the heavens), and they all 
five died in one day. 



david. :J09 

When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley 
(the meridian, where was Cancer,) and they that were on the 
other side Jordan (spring equinox), i. e., the six summer 
constellations, saw that Israel had lied, and Saul and his sons 
(winter) were dead, they also lied from their cities, the Philis- 
tines immediately occupying them, i. e., the two sets of con- 
stellations, the northern and the southern, now seemingly 
reversed as to their natural positions, begin to move ; the 
summer to ascend into the upper and the winter to descend 
into the lower hemisphere. The Philistines, finding Saul and 
his sons dead, stripped Saul of his armor and put it in the 
house of Ashtaroth (Venus' houses Libra, the first of the 
winter constellations, — see Lilly's Christ. Asti'ol., p. 73), in 
readiness for the next winter's campaign. His body they 
fastened to the wall of Beth-shan (house-of-quiet = summer). 
When the Jabesh-Gileadites (summer months) heard what the 
wicked Philistines had done, they took the bodies of Saul and 
his sons (winter constellations in the day hemisphere) and 
burnt them in Jabesh Gilead (the dry season of summer) 
and buried their bones under a tree at Jabesh (at the spring 
equinox). After which they fasted seven days. This was the 
fast of the atonement, which now took place, i. e., when the 
days and nights were of equal length. Poor Saul ! thou wast 
a churlish and unfortunate fellow. Reqidescat in pace. 

When David returned from Ziklag (winter solstice) from 
the slaughter of the Amalekites, three days (months) after- 
ward, he learned that Saul (winter Sun) and Jonathan (the 
provisions) were slain, i. e., that it was spring. On inquiry, he 
found Saul had attempted suicide, but not quite succeeding, he 
was dispatched, in his last moments, at his own request, by a 
young Amalel-ite (Sun entering Taurus), who chanced to be 
near, as he afterward confessed to David (2 Sam. ii, 9). 
Although David had apprehended so much evil at the hand of 
Saul, he now pretended to be very sorry* He " took hold on 
his clothes and rent them," and took on like one mad. Col- 
lecting himself a little, he again catechized the young man, who 
now told David he was the son of an Amalekite, i. e., he was 
Scorpio, the constellation opposite Taurus. Though the two 



310 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

stories seem to disagree, they really hang together ; for Saul, 
or winter, dies or ends equally at the rising of Taurus or the 
setting of Scorpio. The last, however, was slain by David's 
order, i. e., Scorpio, wherein the Earth appeared, for "he had 
the earth upon his head," set. The earth being bare, his 
clothes were rent. 

David, while lamenting for Saul and Jonathan, pronounced 
their eulogy — a mixture, taken literally, of hypocrisy and sin- 
cerity, such as is often witnessed to-day — of hypocrisy as to 
Saul, for he feared and hated him ; of sincerity as regarded 
Jonathan, for " his love for him was wonderful, passing the love 
of women." Summer and its crops are very nearly related, 
and their love for each other must, of course, be exceedingly 
wonderful. 

The Lord now told David to go up to Hebron (Sun's cross- 
ing). David did so, and he and his wives dwelt in the cities 
of Hebron (summer months), where the men of Judah coming 
to him, anointed him king over the house of Judah — over the 
house of Judah — who told David that the men of Jabesh- 
gilead had buried Saul. For this act of kindness to his father, 
David expressed himself duly thankful. But Abner (father of 
light=the Sun) made Ish-bosheth (man-of-shame:=winter= 
Saul) king over all Israel, Judah, of course, included. Ish- 
bosheth, however, reigned but two years ; for Joab (father- 
Sun = the four summer months, July, August, September and 
October) the son of Zeruiah (tripartite Sun) and the servants 
of David (March, April, May and June) met at the pool of 
Gibeon (Sun's hill = summer solstice), where the parties " caught 
every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in 
his fellow's side," and death to all followed, i. e., neither spring 
nor summer existed. The place was therefore called Helkarth- 
hazzurim=the division by swords (2 Sam. ii, 16). It is in 
Gibeon = Sun's hills, or summer solstice. This proved a sore 
battle, wherein Abner and the men of Israel were beaten be- 
fore the servants of David, i. e., summer had passed and win- 
ter was at hand. 

The three sons of Zeruiah (tripartite Sun=the Sun of the 
three seasons, or of the year), viz., Joab (father-Sun = summer), 



DAVID. 311 

Abishai (givmg-father=spring) and Asaliel (rongh-goat= Cap- 
ricorn = winter), now prepared for battle. Asahel (the time 
being winter) took the lead, and notwithstanding the repeated 
warnings of Abner to turn aside from following him, he still 
pursued, when Abner punched him under the fifth rib, a dan- 
gerous place to hit, with the back end of his spear, and Asahel 
died, i. e., winter ended (2 Sam. ii, 23). 

Abishai (spring) and Joab (summer) now followed Abner 
(the Sun) until he came to Amman (or Taurus), which is 
before Giah (the fountain Beer-sheba). Abner now called to 
Joab (for he was the last to follow) to stop. So Joab stopped 
and blew his trumpet, and his people stood still, i. e., vegeta- 
tion came to a stand, ceased to improve, or rather declined from 
this time — the end of summer. Abner and his men now (i. e., 
from the end of summer) walked on all night (winter), passed 
the Jordan (the Sun's ecliptic at the fall equinox), went through 
Bithron (first half of winter) and came to Mahanaim (the double 
encampment). Here they found they had lost 360 men = the 
number of days in the year. They then took Asahel (Capri- 
corn) and, burying him in Beth-lehem (the zenith), came to 
Hebron (spring equinox) at break of day (the beginning of 
summer, which is the day of the year, winter being its night). 

A long war was now declared between the house of Saul 
and the house of David, but David waxed stronger and 
stronger, while Saul waxed weaker and weaker. David soon 
became the father of six sons (the six summer months) by as 
many wives, i. e., he came to the end of summer. 

During the progress of this war Ish-bosheth (man-of-shame) 
accused Abner (father-of-light=the Sun) of committing forni- 
cation with his father's (Saul's) concubine Rizpah (hot-stone= 
summer solstice, which was in Cancer). Abner, who at first 
had sided with the house of Saul, Ish-bosheth's father, was 
very wroth, and exclaimed : "Am la dog's head? " i. e., am 
I only the Sun at the summer solstice, and not the annual 
Sun ? for the " Dog's head " rose with the Sun in Cancer at 
the summer solstice ;* and threatened " to translate the king- 

* For the functions which this u Dog's head" performed, see Dupuis' Origine de 
torn les Chtltes, torn, ii, p. 269. 



312 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

dom from the house of Saul, and set up the throne of David 
over Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba," i. e., over the whole year. 
Ish-bosheth was cowed. Abner, however, proceeded to put 
his threat into execution. He presented his proposition to 
David who would not negotiate until Abner " first bring 
Michal, Saul's daughter," whom David had bought of her 
father for one hundred Philistine foreskins (scalps). So Ish- 
bosheth (the winter constellations) took Michal (Yirgo setting) 
from Phaltiel (escaped Ram= Aries just past his meridian) and 
carried her along, her poor husband following and weeping 
(the latter rain) behind to Bahurim (youths= Gemini), when 
Abner ordered him back, " and he returned " (Aries returns 
from his zenith to the south annually). Abner now insisted 
that the elders of Israel should make David king, according to 
promise ; and while he was consulting with the parties con- 
cerned, the servants of David and Joab (spring and summer 
months) "came from pursuing a troop" (Aries, or Gad=^ 
troop), and brought great spoil (the crops) with them. David 
was now in Hebron (fall equinox) and -Abner (summer Sun) 
was gone in peace (2 Sam. iii, 23). Joab (summer of four 
months) found Abner (the Sun) at the well Beer-sheba (seventh 
months September). Here Joab called Abner "aside in the 
gate" (the entrance to winter) and smote him under the fifth 
rib, killing him at once, thus avenging himself of the blood of 
Asahel, his brother. 

(These three seasons of the year severally smite one another 
in turn under the fifth rib, counting from and including the 
last month of each). 

David professed his innocence of Abner's death, and or- 
dered Joab and the people to rend their clothes and put on 
sackcloth, for winter had again come, and Abner being dead, a 
proper regard must be . had to his memory. Sackcloth, the 
emblem of mourning and sorrow, must now be worn until 
spring. David wept at the grave of Abner (rainy season of 
winter). 

Though David lamented the death of Abner, it was on his 
own account, as presaging his own. Abner, he said, died like 
a fool — referring to the rape of Tamar by Ammon (see chap. 



DAVID. 313 

xiii, 12-13). However, David swore he wouldn't eat " till the 
Sun went down " (below the equator). Of this saying the 
people took notice, for the saying pleased them (feast of the 
ingathering). He then reminded his servants that a "prince 
and a great man had that day (equinoctial) fallen (set) in 
Israel." He knew this, because, though a king, he felt that 
he had grown weaker — winter w r as come, and the Sun's heat 
was diminished. 

When Ish-bosheth heard of Abner's death in Hebron (fall 
equinox) his hands grew feeble,* and Israel was troubled (winter 
came on). He had two men : Baanah (son of sorrow) and Ra- 
chab (a rider=the Sun). They were the sons of Rimmon (a 
pomegranate = summer, because of its numerous seeds), a Bee- 
rothite (i. e., of the wells) of Benjamin (Libra). These fled to 
Gittaim (winter). 

We are now told, by way of parenthesis, that Jonathan 
had a son live years (months) old, who was lame in his feet. 
At this age, w r hen " tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of 
Jezreel " (spring), his nurse seized him and fled, but unluckily, 
in her haste, she let him fall " and he became lame." His name 
was Mephibosheth, or Meribaal (struggle with Baal = food dur- 
ing winter). 

These sons of Rimmon (summer), Rechab and Baanah, went 
to the house of Ish-bosheth (Aquarius) in the heat of the day 
(at mid-summer, when the Sun rose in Leo and the two points 
of the solstices are in the horizon), where they found him on 
his bed at noon (summer solstice, when Aquarius sets, or goes 
to bed). The naughty scamps approached him as though they 
brought wheat (it was threshing time), and, taking advantage 
of their ruse, " smote him under the fifth rib " (2 Sam. iv, 6). 
They then escaped by night, and brought his head to David at 
Hebron (the crossing or equator), i. e., having set, and passed 
through the lower hemisphere, Aquarius rises, or comes to 
David, head-first. If David was wroth at the death of Saul, 
how much more was he displeased when these wicked men 
slew a righteous person in his own house, on his own bed ! 
He commanded his young men, and they slew them, cut off 

* Ish-bosheth was Moses, whose hands were falling down. 



314 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

their hands and feet (the extremes of winter) and hung them 
up over the pool in Hebron (the " latter rain "), which happens 
when Aquarius comes to his zenith, or day meridian, where he 
strikes the Rock (meridian) a second time, the first being the 
stroke which brought the " former rain." Ish-bosheth's head 
they buried in the sepulcher of Abner in Hebron (at the fall 
equinox). 

This chapter (2 Sam. v) commences with the beginning of 
the new year at the spring equinox, where David (the Sun) 
annually gathers the children of Israel (zodiacal constellations) 
unto, or at Hebron (the equator or crossing). At this place all 
the elders (principal divisions of the year) met David, and the 
king made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, i. e., 
at the beginning of summer. Here, too, David was " anointed 
king over Israel " (v. 3). As king, David next went forth from 
the spring equinox up to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites. The 
people of Jerusalem (summer solstice) objected to his coming 
among them, unless he removed " the lame and the blind " 
(v. 6), i. e., the dark days of winter. However, he took the 
stronghold of Zion (ship-Sun = the ship Argo just south of 
Leo, which rises near the summer solstice). The lame and 
blind were thus, of course, thrust out. So David dwelt in the 
fort (summer solstice), which he called the city of David (Sun's 
city, or Heliopolis). Thence he went on and grew great (the 
heat increases and the crops are ripened). Hiram (high-hole = 
the place of the winter solstice at sunrise) right here built 
David a house, i.e., Aquarius setting indicates the place of the 
Sun at sunrise to be in Leo, astrologically the house of the Sun 
(David). From this house or point David perceived the Lord 
(summer solstice) had made him king over Israel. Shortly 
after he had become king he took him more concubines and 
wives, i. e., the Sun entered Virgo. The Philistines having 
heard that David was king now sought him. David met them 
at the hold (fall equinox). The Philistines spread themselves 
in Rephaim (valley of the Physicians= October indicated by 
Ophiuchus, also called Esculapius, because certain epidemic 
diseases disappeared about the time of his rising — as the 
plague). The Lord, on David's asking, told him he might go 



DAVID. 315 

against the Philistines, for he would " doubtless deliver them 
into his hand" — it seemed doubtful however. David came 
to Baal-perazim (Lord-of-t he-breaches = winter solstice), where 
the Philistines had left their images (ozebim=work, in allusion 
to the longest night). David, of course, burned them, i. e., he 
took away a little from the length of each successive night. 
Or: the last three months of winter are an exact reversed 
counterpart of the first three — hence images. In coming to 
the spring equinox, he took these away. 

Again the Philistines spread themselves in Rephaim. On 
inquiry, the Lord told David he must " fetch a compass behind 
them over against (opposite to) the mulberry trees," or, the 
fall equinox. David followed the Lord's directions and smote 
the Philistines from Gaba (hill =f all equinox) to Gazer (the 
division = spring equinox), i. e., winter passed away or ended. 

The classical reader will doubtless remember that in the 
myth of Py ramus and Thisbe, these lovers agreed to meet 
under this identical mulberry tree. The former being the 
Sun, and the latter Virgo, the tragedy which followed, the 
reader can readily imagine. 

In a previous page I have treated sufficiently of the ark of 
God (see Ark of the Tabernacle). I will here simply review 
briefly the conduct of David while the ark of God was in his 
city — the summer solstice. 

David, it appears, went from " Baale of Judah," i, e., Kir- 
jath-jearim, or the summer solstice (2 Sam. vi, 2), to Obed- 
edom (fall equinox) to bring home the ark of God (v. 12). 
Having gone six paces (months) on his return, " he sacrificed 
oxen and fatlings (Taurus and Aries)," i. e., he came to the 
spring equinox. Thence David (the Sun) danced before the 
Lord with all his might, girded with a linen ephod (the female 
emblem of fecundity). As the ark of the Lord, which "David 
and all the house of Israel brought up," came into " the city of 
David " (the summer solstice), Michal, Saul's daughter and 
David's wife, saw, through a window (the east, for Virgo was 
just below the eastern horizon), her husband leaping and danc- 
ing, naked (sun in the clear sky), before the maidens, " and she 
despised him in her heart " (v. 16). However, David set up 



316 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the ark in the midst of the tabernacle (mid-summer). He then 
blessed all the people, and gave every one a loaf of bread and 
a flagon of wine (the harvest and the vintage). 

After, when David returned to bed with his wife Michal 
(Sun in Virgo), she gave him a " curtain lecture " for exposing 
himself so shamelessly before the young girls ! David protested 
that, as the Lord had appointed him ruler over the people, it was 
his right ; besides, he would conduct himself still more shame- 
fully, so that he would even seem " base in his own sight " (like 
some high church dignitaries now-a-days) ; and yet his maid- 
servants would have him in honor ! i. e., like Hagar, they 
would bear children by him, while Michal would bear no child 
unto the day of her death. And this, because David (the 
Sun) was ruler over the people of the Lord (summer), and not 
Saul, or the winter Sun ! 

It is now mid-summer, for " the king sat in his house, and 
the Lord had given him rest " (summer solstice). So David 
dwelt in a house of cedar (the tall tree = Sun in Cancer),, 
while the ark of the Gods (Elohim) dwelt within or between 
curtains, i. e., Aries was in his zenith, and, of course, between 
the eastern and western horizons. The Lord now told Nathan 
(the spring just ended) to ask David about building him (the 
Lord) a house to live in, saying he had not dwelt in any house 
since he brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt (win- 
ter), but had walked in a tent and in a tabernacle (zodiac). 
Poor Lord ! he must have been very tired by this time ! How 
sorry we are for him (2 Sam. vii). 

Though the Lord had taken David from the sheepcote 
(Aries), made him ruler over his people, and went with him 
whithersoever he went ; had destroyed all his enemies (winter 
days), and made him a great name, a name like the greatest of 
the earth, David could not build the Lord a house (summer), 
because summer was mostly gone. The Lord would, there- 
fore, appoint a place for his people (Israel = summer), which 
they might call their own, wherein the wicked children 
(wintry days) shall not afflict them ; and where thy days shall 
be fulfilled, i. e., when summer is ended, and thou shalt sleep 
with thy fathers (in winter). I will establish the kingdom of 



DAVID. 317 

thy seed (Solomon), and " he shall build a house for my name " 
(2 Sam. vii, 13). i. e., the next summer, " I will establish his 
kingdom for ever" {plam= hiding), i. e., to the hiding — to 
the next winter ; for the Sun in winter was always known as 
the hidden one—Sether, whose cabalistic number is 666 (Rev. 
xiii, 18). Thus, in Job xiii, 24: "Wherefore hidest thou thy 
face, and boldest me for thine enemy?" (see also Ps. xliv, 24, 
and lxxxviii, 14; and the Seals of the Planets in Barretfs 
Magus.) 

David having learned, through Nathan the prophet, that 
his time is limited (v. 12), laments its brevity, yet becomes 
reconciled, praises the "Lord God" (Adoni-jahveh=the sum- 
mer solstice), and asks him to let his blessing extend "unto the 
hiding hefore thy face" says the Hebrew text — to winter. 

Here David again pitched into the Philistines, taking 
Metheg-ammah (crook-in-the-knee=the winter solstice) out of 
their hands. He also smote Moab (Water-father = Aquarius, 
or the rainy seasons), and measured them with two lines (Ham 
and Shem) to put to death, and one full line (Japheth) to keep 
alive. And so the Moabites (the latter rain of spring = 
Japheth) became David's servants, and brought him gifts (the 
crops). He also smote Hadadezer (helping spring Sun), the 
son of Pehob (Zodiac), king of Zobah (station —the earth), 
when he went to recover his border (summer) at the river 
Euphrates (good-fruits = fall equinox). From Hadadezer David 
took chariots and horses (the days of the year). Part of the 
horses (spring days) he houghed (i. e., during spring Sagittarius 
set) ; part he saved for himself (summer days). He also sub- 
dued the Syrians (the lengthening days) as he came to the 
summer solstice, and they brought gifts (the crops). David 
took shields of gold from Hadadezer's servants (sunbeams of 
the spring months=the golden fleece of the Argonauts); and 
from Betah (ripeness = autumn) and Berothai (my wells = the 
winter months) David got much brass (winter Sun=the brazen 
age). When Toi (error=winter solstice), king of Hamath 
(water skins= Aquarius), heard what David had done, he sent 
Joram {the lifted-up, or equinoctial Sun) to salute him and to 
bless him — give him another crop. Joram also brought 



318 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

vessels of silver and of gold (the spring and summer Sun) to 
David, all which he dedicated to the Lord (summer). " So 
David gat him a name when he returned from smiting the 
Syrians in the valley of salt" (winter). Salt being the best 
preservative against putrefaction known to the ancients, I can- 
not help thinking the phrase, " valley of salt," had reference to 
the preservation of the Sun during winter. " Salt," says 
Philo Judseus, " is calculated to preserve bodies, being placed 
in the second rank as inferior only to the soul ; for as the soul 
is the cause of bodies not being destroyed, so likewise is salt, 
which keeps them together in the greatest degree, and, to 
some extent, makes them immortal " (Bohn's Philo., vol. iii, 
p. 235). 

David next garrisoned Edom (laid by provisions for winter), 
and the Edomites thus became his servants. The Lord (sum- 
mer) also preserved him, and he reigned over all Israel (the 
whole year), executing judgment impartially. 

Joab (father-Sun) was over the host (the year). Jehosha- 
phat (judging-Sun) was recorder. Zadok (the just) and Ahim- 
elech (brother-king) were priests, i. e., the two solstices; 
Seraiah (Sun-ruler) was the scribe. Benaiah (building-Sun) was 
over the Cherethites (Philistines), and the Pelethites (runners). 
David's sons were chief rulers. 

2 Sam. ix. David now seeks for a descendant of Saul, that 
"he may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake." He 
inquired of one Ziba (plantation = Earth) of the house of Saul 
(earth in winter), if he knew " any of the house of Saul." Ziba 
said : " Jonathan hath yet a son lame of his feet ; " he is in 
the house of Machir (merchant), the son of Ammiel (my ser- 
vants' Ram), in Lo-debar (no-pasture=winter). David lost no 
time, but " sent and fetched him " out of the merchant's house. 
When Mephibosheth (expeller of difnculties=food) came to 
David " he fell on his face and did reverence," i. e., was placed 
upon the table. Having no feet he must fall, and would most 
likely fall on his face. David, though ready to devour him, 
said to him: " Fear not; for I will show thee kindness, and 
restore thee the field (winter) of Saul, thy father, and thou 
shalt eat bread at my table continually," i. e., summer will 



DAVID. 319 

always furnish bread for the winter season. Mephibosheth 
doubtless felt very grateful, at the same time calling himself 
"a dead dog" (the winter just ended). 

David kept his promise, as he immediately told Ziba (the 
Earth) he had given his master's (Saul) son all that pertaineth 
to Saul and Saul's house" (v. 9), i. e., the winter w T as just 
ended. "Thou, therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, 
shall till the land (during the summer) for him and bring the 
fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat : but Mephib- 
osheth shall eat bread always at my table." Mephibosheth 
had a son, Micha (who is like the Sun = the Sun in winter). 
"All that dwelt in the house of Ziba (Earth) were servants to 
Mephibosheth." So Mephibosheth (sustenance) dwelt in Jeru- 
salem (summer), " for he did eat continually (i. e., the year 
round) at the king's table ; and was lame on both his feet." 

2 Sam. x. As chapter ix relates to the putting in of the 
crop, so the present chapter contains the myth of the following 
harvest with the balance of the year. After the death of 
Kahash (serpent = winter), king of the children of Amnion 
(the descendants of Lot by his younger daughter), Hanun (favor 
= summer) reigned in his stead. David thought to show kind- 
ness to Hanun, because his father had been kind to him. He, 
therefore, sent his servants (summer constellations) into the 
land of the children of Amnion, to comfort Hanun. The 
princes of the children of Ammon persuaded Hanun that 
David had a selfish end in view, which was not an unreason- 
able idea, as if the grain were not garnered, it would drop into 
the ground. So Hanun took David's servants (the summer 
months) and shaved off their beards (the grain crop), and cut 
off their garments (the grass) in the middle (of course leaving 
a stubble) down to their buttocks (fall equinox, — see cut in the 
almanac, where the man figures as the Earth), and sent them 
away ! 

Thus David's servants felt that they were sadly disgraced, 
and, in consequence, " were greatly ashamed." The king said : 
" Tarry at Jericho (spring, when the wheat heads out,) until 
your beards be grown, and then return." Of course, the 
children of Ammon (base-born fellows) soon found themselves 



320 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

in bad odor with David (for winter was in prospect), and they 
must prepare for the battle which they knew would soon be at 
hand. To this end, they hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob and 
of Zoba, 20,000 men ; of King Maacah, 1,000 men ; and of 
Ishtob, 12,000 ; in all 33,000 men, or one-third of the year, 
and that probably the winter third (Shem). Against this 
formidable enemy David sent Joab (sun-father —the four sum- 
mer months in the Noachic division of the year = July, August, 
September, October). Joab soon found a the battle against 
him before and behind" (2 Sam. x, 9), his season being 
between the other two. He, therefore, took all the chosen 
men of Israel (the months just named) and put them opposite 
the Syrians (the summer against the winter months). The 
rest of the people (the four spring months) he placed in the 
hand of Abishai (father-of-a-gift= spring, the growing season). 
Thus arranged each could help the other. The battle now 
began. These three seasons both pursued and fled from one 
another, and Joab came to Jerusalem (summer solstice). The 
smitten Syrians, seeing they were whipped, now "gathered 
themselves together " (v. 15) ; for, at the summer solstice, part 
of the southern constellations are above and part below the 
western horizon at sunrise. Hadadezer (helping-sun of spring) 
sent and brought the Syrians from beyond the river (western 
horizon) to Helam (the. turnings fall equinox). 

The two parties were now, of course, arrayed against or 
opposite each other. The Syrians fled, as before, and David 
slew (leaving out the interpolated words) 700 chariots (the 
seven months of winter, counting from and including Septem- 
ber), 40,000 horsemen (forty days lent) and Shobach (poured- 
out=end of the year), who died there (at the spring equinox). 
So the parties made peace, for the Syrians feared to help 
Ammon any more, i. e., winter ended. 

2 Sam. xi. • It is again mid-summer, the time when kings 
go out to battle ; when David sent Joab (Sun -father) and all 
Israel with him to destroy the children of Ammon (winter), 
the descendants of Lot by his younger daughter (Yirgo, rising 
with the Sun), and besiege Kabbah (winter). " But David (the 
solstitial Sun) tarried still at Jerusalem" (summer solstice). 



DAVID. 321 

On a beautiful evening, not in May, however, as David, having 
u arose from off his bed," was walking on the roof of the 
king's house (after sunset, the Sun being in Cancer), he spied a 
woman washing herself (Virgo setting), and nude as she must 
have been, she was very beautiful to look upon. David's 
passion was at once inflamed. On inquiry, he found the 
woman's name was Bath-sheba (daughter-of -seven, i. e., of 
the seven summer months = Virgo). She w r as the wife of Uriah 
(heat-of-the-Sun) the Hittite (son-of-dread). David at once sent 
for her; had her brought to him, and he lay with her (Sun in 
Virgo). The consequence was, as it often happens in such 
cases, the woman was got in an interesting condition — in fact 
she w T as enceinte / or, as she plainly informed David, " I am 
with child." 

David, like many another high church dignitary, even in 
our day, was now in a " peck of trouble." He sent for Uriah, 
and, after a little common-place talk, told him to go home, 
wash his feet and go to bed with his wife. Thus the king 
thought to cover up his crime. Unfortunately for poor Uriah, 
he heeded not the king's command, but slept at the door of 
the king's house (Scorpio was then on his meridian and in 
quartile aspect with the Sun in Leo). So David's object was 
for the time frustrated. He asked Uriah : " Why didst not 
thou go down unto thine house % " Uriah couldn't see it. 
u What," exclaimed he, " go home into mine house to eat and 
drink and to lie with my wife, while my lord, Joab, and 
the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields ! " 
Not he. David was not slow to discern his position. Uriah 
must be done for, or the thing would out of itself! So he let 
Uriah tarry that day and the next, which made three (months) 
in all, the exact distance to Uriah's house (Scorpio). Mean- 
while David wrote to Joab to put Uriah (Sun's heat, which 
dies when cool weather sets in,) in the forefront of the battle 
and then retire from him (Sun entering the winter constella- 
tions), that he may be smitten and die. This, as Bath-sheba 
was his own daughter, Joab was only too ready to do, and so 
he became a participator in the king's crime. 

What was hoped for, happened. Uriah (heat of the Sun) 
21 



322 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

was placed in the forefront of the hottest battle (the end of 
summer), and while lighting valiantly for his king, who had 
most deeply wronged him, and thereby became his mortal 
enemy, fell pierced by the darts of the opposing forces, — Joab 
having in the meanwhile withdrawn from him, i. e., summer 
ended. In his dispatches to the king, Joab, always in collusion 
with him against Uriah, carefully gives the messengers instruc- 
tions to say nothing of Uriah's death until David show some 
change of disposition as regarded the result of the battle, i. e., 
until the weather grew cooler. The messenger was then, and 
not until then, to casually revert to Uriah's fall and death. 
Still, in his report to the king, he must always canw the idea 
that Uriah's death was the result of the fortune of war, or of 
chance, or anything, rather than by design. These instructions 
were carefully attended to. David tipped the wink to the 
messenger, saying, tell Joab the sword devoureth one as well 
as another. But the damning fact that David — the mourning, 
which of course was a short one, being over — sent for Bath- 
sheba and fetched her and took her to wife, she meanwhile 
bearing him a son, sufficiently exposed David's intrigue with 
the woman. But the thing " was evil in the eyes of the Lord," 
i. e., summer ended and winter came, or was close at hand. 

2 Sam. xii. Nathan (the gift = the crop) now appears 
upon the stage — sent by the Lord (summer), of course. Yery 
well. His business was to learn David a lesson on the " golden 
rule" — to do by others as he would be done by, concerning 
" the rich man who had many flocks and herds," and " the 
poor man, who had but one little ewe." And it must be con- 
fessed that Nathan put the thing very nicely, and greatly to 
the indignation of David, who declared, " off hand," that the 
transgressor should restore "fourfold" to the injured party. 
Nathan (the crop) at this fitting moment (Sun in Virgo) thun- 
dered : " Thou art the man " (v. 7) ; and went on to tell what 
the Lord (summer) had done for him : he had anointed him 
king ; had delivered him from the hand of Saul (winter) ; had 
given him his master's house (Leo), and his master's wives 
(Yirgo during the year), etc. " If that had been too little, he 
would have given him such and such things " besides ; but 



DAVID. 323 

now, because he had killed Uriah (sun's heat) with the sword 
of the Ammonites, and taken Uriah's wife to be his wife, etc., 
he (the Lord) would raise up evil (winter) against him, and 
give his wives to his neighbor, and " he shall lie with thy wives 
in the sight of this (winter) Sun." David, become aware of 
his desperate and deplorable condition, cried lustily : peceavi, 
" I have sinned." Nathan, quick as thought, exclaimed : 
" The Lord also hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die," 
i. e., thou wilt survive the cold and other privations of winter. 
"Howbeit, because thou hast given great occasion to the 
enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child (crops) also that is 
born unto thee shall surely die." The Lord had soon forgotten 
the lesson he had just taught David by Nathan ; so the inno- 
cent must suffer for the guilty. This is Christian all over. 
But, David besought God (Sun approaching Aries) for the 
child, and went in (where ? why, in the winter or night hem- 
isphere^, and lay all night (winter) upon the earth (the lower 
hemisphere). " The elders (decans) of his house (Leo) went to 
him (Leo setting=winter solstice) to raise him up, but he 
would not ; neither did he eat bread with them." On the 
seventh day (seventh month, counting from and including, 
which was usual, the last summer month). The poor child 
died (the winter was gone). David's servants feared to tell 
him the sad news, but he perceived, from their whisperings 
(the milder winds), that the child was dead. So he arose 
(came to the spring equinox) washed (latter rain), anointed 
himself (became the summer sun again), changed his apparel 
(put on his summer garb), and came to his own house (Leo, or 
Heliopolis), where he worshiped, i. e., began his south decli- 
nation again. " When he required, they set bread (harvest) 
before him, and he did eat." His servants wanted to know 
why he acted thus. David told them that while his child was 
alive, there was hope, therefore he fasted and wept (for food 
was scarce and the season rainy) ; but when dead he couldn't 
bring him back again ; hence mourning was useless. It would 
be better to cheer up and " try again." So his next care was 
to comfort poor Bath-sheba, his wife; after which, in due time, 
she bore him Solomon (Sol = Sun; om=S\m; on=Svm, i. e., 



324 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the sun during tlie entire year), and the Lord (summer) loved 
him, and named him Jedidiah (esteemed of the Lord). 

Again Joab (father-Sun) fought Kabbah (winter) and took 
the " city of waters " (rainy season), and delivered it over to 
David, who finished its conquest (spring came). The crown 
was again put on David's head, and he spoiled the city — the 
Egyptians. Having brought forth the people (out of winter), 
he, Oh, horror of horrors ! " put them under saws, and under 
harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass 
through the brick-kiln." " So David and the people returned 
to Jerusalem," of course, all safe and sound. But alas ! what 
sufferings the poor people underwent at the hand of David ! 
Oh, the savage wretch ! But hold ! No ; it was only an odd 
way they had of telling that the people, when winter was over, 
returned to their respective avocations, — the carpenter took 
his saw; the farmer, his harrow; the woodman, his axe, and 
the brick-maker returned to his kiln ! 

2 Sam. xiii. Here Amnon (faithful Sun) is in love with 
Tamar (palm-tree = summer), Absalom's (father- of-peace= win- 
ter Sun) sister. Amnon fell sick (Sun in winter), because of 
Tamar, but "thought it hard to do anything to her." His 
friend Jonadab (given-of-the-Sun=the crops), the son of Shimei 
(Earth), said to him : " Lay thee down on thy bed, and make 
thyself sick (Sun gets sick near the end of summer), and when 
thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him : Let my sister 
Tamar come and give me meat." All went on as foreseen. 
Tamar (summer) brought the food, but Amnon, through love 
for his sister, had lost his appetite. He asked her to approach 
and lie with him. She declined ; when Amnon, " being stronger 
than she, forced her, and lay with her" (Sun in Virgo). Now, 
Amnon, having accomplished his desire, hated his sister, and 
said : " Arise, begone." Tamar expostulated, but Amnon 
called his servant (Libra), and said : " Put this woman from 
me, and bolt the door after her " (Yirgo rises heliacally while 
the Sun passes the fall equinox). Tamar was clothed with a 
garment of many colors (vegetation at the end of summer). 
Thrust from Amnon's presence, she now " put ashes on her 
head " (the emblem of mourning = Yirgo in winter), tore off 



DAVID. 325 

her garments (vegetation of summer), laid her hand on her 
head, and went on crying (winter). She now informed her 
brother Absalom (Sun in winter) how Amnon had abused her. 
Absalom simply said to her : " Hold now thy peace, my sister " 
(v. 20). So Tamar remained desolate (during the winter), in 
her brother's house (the day hemisphere in winter), while 
" Absalom spake neither good nor bad to his brother Amnon " 
(v. 21), i. e., it was neither summer nor winter. 

But when David heard of Tamar's disgrace, he was very 
wroth (summer had returned). Absalom, however, kept 
silence (winter was gone), a sure indication that he would, at 
the proper time, avenge his sister's disgrace. Soon after (in 
autumn), Absalom had sheep-shearers (the Hebrew says nothing 
about sheep, — the word translated sheep-shearers, is gozazim 
cutters, i. e., the frosts of autumn) in Baal-hazor (the winter 
half of the zodiac), which is by Ephraim (two-lands= spring and 
fall ; here the latter), where Absalom invited all the king's 
sons (" the sons of God," or summer constellations, — See Job i, 
6), and even the king himself. David (the summer Sun) 
declined to go (v. 25), but nevertheless he blessed him (the 
summer crops). At the urgent request of Absalom he per- 
mitted Amnon to go with him, also. Absalom, now, having 
the guilty party in his power, told his servants (the winter 
months) to watch him, and when they saw that Amnon's heart 
was merry with wine (as in the case of Noah), to fall upon him, 
and "kill him; fear not." Absalom's servants did as they 
were bid ; after which each mounted his mule (his part of the 
Sun's ecliptic) and fled." 

Rumor, with her " loud report," soon informed David that 
"Absalom hath slain all the king's sons, and there is not one 
of them left " (v. 30). Of course, poor David was in great 
grief; he tore his garments (the vegetation), and "lay on the 
earth (Sun in winter), while all his servants (summer months) 
stood by with their clothes rent." Jonadab (the crops), a 
friend of Amnon, and withal " a very subtle man," being a 
son of Shimei (Earth), comforted David, and assured him that 
Amnon alone was dead. ' 

But Absalom (winter) had fled, and the young man (Leo, 



326 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the original coming from naar, to roar) that kept the watch 
(Leo setting), on looking behind him espied "much people 
coming by the way of the hill-side " (spring equinox). Jona- 
dab said : " Behold, the king's sons (the summer constellations) 
come," i. e., are coming. They soon came, lifted up their 
voices and wept — the king weeping also (the latter rain of 
spring). But Absalom fled and went to Talmai (a son of 
Anak=the fall equinox), the son of Ammihud (people that 
turn aside=2LVLi\\mn), king of Geshur (a bridge = equinoctial 
line), wmere he remained three years (three months). But the 
king, David, having become reconciled to the death of Amnon 
(summer), " was consumed" (see marginal reading) in going 
forth to his son Absalom (winter). 

2 Sam. xiv. Joab (Sun-father = summer solstice) saw that 
the king's heart was set toward Absalom (winter). So Joab 
sent to Tekoah (a place near the desert= winter) for a wise 
woman. Having " fetched " her, he told her to put on mourn- 
ing for her dead son (the summer), instructed her what to say, 
and sent her to the king (Sun in Yirgo). Having rehearsed 
the words put into her mouth by Joab, " she fell upon her face 
to the ground, " did obeisance and said, "Help, O king." The 
good king, having listened to the story of the light between 
her two sons, Absalom and Amnon (Cain and Abel), in which 
the latter was killed, and also of the disposition of " the whole 
family toward the murderer, assured the poor widow that not 
a hair of his head should fail to the ground" (v. 11). Having 
thus enlisted the king's sympathy, she boldly made her case 
the king's own ; for, it was of the king's sons, and her own as 
well, Absalom and Amnon, she was speaking. 

David was not slow to perceive that Joab had had some- 
thing to do in the matter, and inquired of the woman if such 
was not the case. She at once ingenuously confessed to the 
truth, adding that all events were decreed by fate, or destiny. 
So the king ordered Joab to go and bring the young murderer 
back. Joab, obedient to the king's command, fell to the 
ground on his face (Sun in the winter solstice, or Aquarius). 
He next arose and went to Geshur (bridge = spring equinox), 
and brought Absalom (Aquarius) to Jerusalem (his zenith, or 



DAVID. 327 

day meridian) ; for as there are two meridians, day and night, 
so there were two Jerusalems; "the Jerusalem which is 
above" (Gal. iv, 26), and the opposite, or lower Jerusalem). 
Here Absalom entered his own house (zenith), " and saw not 
the king's face." It was veiled like Moses' face. 

Now Absalom* (father-of-peace= Earth) was greatly es- 
teemed for his beauty ; he had not a blemish upon him (it was 
harvest time). When he polled his head, which he did but 
once a year, the hair of his head weighed 200 shekels {sheaves, 
the shekel having a sheaf stamped upon it), after the kings 
weight, i. e., the crop was good or bad, according to the season, 
the 200 sheaves being the average crop for each " head," or 
unit measure of land.f 

While Absalom dwelt in Jerusalem, which was " full two 
years" shenathaim yamim, two days (v. 28)= the time the 
Sun occupied in passing the winter hemisphere), there were 
born to him four children, three sons and one daughter, i. e., 
the year began at the spring equinox. These children were 
then born, not grown ; being perhaps by his father's con- 
cubines, as we don't learn that Absalom ever had any wives 
of his own ! 

The king (the Sun) having refused to see him, Absalom 
sent for Joab twice to introduce him to that august autocrat, 
but Joab wouldn't come — he was going in the opposite direc- 
tion. Absalom, therefore, out of spite, like Samson, set Joab's 
field, which was near his own, on fire. This aroused the anger 
of Joab, who demanded of Absalom why he " set his field on 
fire. " The latter told the former frankly that it was because 
he wouldn't introduce him to the king. So Joab, thus brought 
to terms, went straight to the king, and told him Absalom 
wanted to see him. Soon after the king called for his rowdy 
son. Absalom went, met his father, bowed himself on his face 

* The reciprocal action of the celestial bodies among one another is the reason why 
what is said of one may often he said of another; and their respective attributes he mu- 
tually transferred, as in the case in hand. Thus when Aquarius comes to his zenith, the 
Sun is in Taurus, these two constellations being in quartile aspect, with the Earth oppo- 
site the Sun. Hence, what is said of any of these bodies, in their present relation, is 
true of any other, because all have reference to the same season of the year. 

t Taken according to the letter, the weight of Absalom's hair would be about 6J4 
pounds ! This absurdity, theologians have endeavored to remove by many senseless con- 
jectures. (See Rees" 1 Cyclopcedia, Art. Absalom.) 



328 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

to the ground before the king, and the king kissed him (Sun 
entered Aquarius). 

2 Sam. xv. " And it came to pass after this, i. e., after the 
Lord's threat (xii, 11), " that Absalom prepared him chariots 
and horses and fifty men (the five winter months) to run before 
him." He then stood by the gate (the entrance to winter) and 
made fair promises to all that came along — the crops looked 
good. Having made sure of the good will of the people, he 
next expressed his desire to be made king, or at least the king's 
deputy. He would then see that the people had justice done 
them, that he would. So when any man approached him, he 
took him by the hand and kissed him, as our wily politicians 
still do. Thus he stole the people's hearts. After a while, he 
obtained the king's consent to pay a vow he had vowed to the 
Lord in Hebron at Geshur in Syria (spring equinox). Arrived 
at Hebron (the crossing) he made arrangements that the peo- 
ple, at the sound of the trumpet (the Ram's horns of Jericho— 
Aries in spring) should proclaim him king. This was done. 
Soon after, Absalom with 200 men that were called out of 
Jerusalem (the constellations Leo and Yirgo, several times be- 
fore alluded to, and fools, for they knew nothing), went for- 
ward in his simplicity. In the meanwhile he sent for Ahitho- 
phel (brother-of-a-fool, i. e., brother of Absalom), David's con- 
selor, and a Gilonite (a dweller-in-a-circle=the Sun). Ahith- 
ophel (summer solstice) offered sacrifices (the southern or win- 
ter constellations then setting). The conspiracy increased 
continually, for the people (the days) constantly went over to 
Absalom's side, i. e., summer was passing away. Rumors of 
Absalom's rebellion soon reached David. Frightened out of 
his wits, he took his servants and fled. Like Saul, David be- 
came another man (1 Sam. x, 6). In his haste, he left ten * of 
his concubines (the last decan of Yirgo) " to keep the house." 
Thus, David was completely exiled — was in the winter hemis- 
phere with his old enemies, the Cherethites, the Pelethites and 
the Gittites (Philistines). Even Ittai (the pronoun thou), a 
Benjaminite (David, or the Sun in Libra), who was the last to 

* These ten concubines, or days, were the ten degrees the Snn went back on the dial 
of Ahaz. 



DAVID. 329 

pass over into the winter hemisphere, stuck closely to David, 
swearing by his most solemn oath, that wherever " the king- 
shall be, whether in life or in death (in summer or in winter), 
even there also will thy servant be" (v. 21). The poor ex-king 
gladly accepted Ittai's company (poor, I say, because a man is 
usually known by the company he keeps). 

The people now, at the beginning of winter, all wept with 
a loud voice as they passed the brook Kidron {muddy stream, 
which flows only in winter = the rainy season of winter). Za- 
dok (Sun at the fall equinox) went over with the rest, bearing 
the ark of God (Aries was just setting) with him. David told 
Zadok, if he was a seer, or prophet, to carry the ark of God 
back into the city (Jerusalem = summer solstice), and he would 
tarry in the plain of the wilderness, at the pleasure of the 
Lord, "until there come word from you to certify me," i. e., 
until Aries, or the ark of God, reached his zenith, or Jerusalem, 
when the Sun would be in Cancer. Thus the Sun must have 
successively passed the constellations Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, 
Taurus and Gemini, when Zadok's mission was ended. 

So Zadok and Abiathar (father of plenty), and their two 
sons Ahimaaz (broth er-of-anger=: summer solstice) and Jona- 
than (winter solstice), carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem. 
Poor David, meantime, went up by Mount Olivet (Mount of 
brightness = spring equinox), and the people with him weeping 
as they went (latter rain), and barefoot (shoes, or rather sandals 
were then put off), but with covered heads (the clouds which 
overspread the sky). 

David now, for the first time, learned that Ahithophel 
(summer solstice) was among the conspirators. By the appar- 
ent motion of the heavens, the summer solstice (Ahithophel) 
seems annually to take the place of the winter solstice, and 
vice versa, while the equinoxes also seem to be reversed in like 
manner. Thus Ahithophel got " among the conspirators with 
Absalom " (winter, or rather Aquarius, who was always es- 
teemed the genius of the rainy season, or winter). David 
prayed that the Lord would turn his counsel (Ahithophel had 
advised Absalom " to go in unto his father's wives," — see chap, 
xvi, 21) into foolishness, i. e., that winter would come on, 



830 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

during which the Sun could not come in conjunction with or 
in opposition to Virgo. 

Soon after this, when David came to the " top of the 
mount, 5 ' where he worshiped God (Sun in Libra), behold 
Hushai (haste = the Sun's apparent accelerated motion in win- 
ter) the Archite (dweller in the ark= winter) came to meet 
him, with his coat rent and earth upon his head. David told 
Hushai * his company would be burdensome (the days were 
growing shorter), and wished him to go to the city (winter sol- 
stice) and tell Absalom thou wilt be his servant as thou hast 
been mine hitherto (v. 34). " Then mayest thou for me defeat 
the counsel of Ahithophel." He (Hushai) had with him, said 
David, Zadok (the priests one of the cardinal points), Abia- 
thar (father of plenty], Ahimaaz (brother of anger = summer) 
and Jonathan (the crops of summer) ; " and by them ye shall 
send me everything that ye can hear." So Hushai, David's 
friend, came into the city (winter solstice) and Absalom came 
into Jerusalem (the nether), and thus prevented, for the time 
being, the consummation of Ahithophel's advice to Absalom ; 
for during this time the Sun could not come in conjunction or 
opposition with Yirgo. 

2 Sam. xvi. Now when David w T as a little past the top of 
the hill (summer solstice), Ziba (station == Earth) the servant of 
Mephibosheth (expeller of care = the crops) met him with two 
asses (two stars in Cancer) laden with bread, fruits and wine. 
The kin^ asked Ziba what he meant. Ziba answered that 
these things were for the king's household (the year). He 
next asked after Absalom, his son. Ziba said he was at Jeru- 
salem, and he said : " To-day shall the house of Israel restore 
(he had been king before) me the kingdom of my father ; " he 
also said : " Behold thine are all that pertain eth to Mephib- 
osheth " (v. 4). 

When David came to Bahurim (low land = fall equinox), he 
met Shimei (Sun and Earth are then on the equinoctial line), 
the son of Gera (anger = winter). Shimei (the Earth) now 
came forth and cursed as he came, i. e., the earth became bare. 
He also cast stones at David, and said, " Come out, come out, 

* Hushai may mean the Moon. 



DAVID. 381 

thou man of blood (warrior), and thou son of Belial " (lord of 
the opposite = summer, for it was then winter). Such were 
the reproaches which Shimei hurled at David (the summer 
Sun). Abishai (father of a gift), the son of Zerniah (dividing 
Sun) was so much nettled at " this dead dog " (Earth in winter) 
that he wanted to take his head off, but David didn't think it 
worth while, since he only did what the Lord had bidden him 
(natural law). " It may be," said David, " the Lord will 
requite me good for his cursing," i. e., the summer will come 
again, and the earth will produce all the better for having been 
frozen through the winter. So David went by the way (the 
Zodiac), while Shimei went along opposite to him (v. 13), curs- 
ing and throwing stones (the months) as he went, until at last 
he threw only dust, i. e., the earth became dry, as in Gen. viii, 
14, — summer came. The king (the Sun) and his weary people 
(exhausted by the winter), now refreshed themselves (" came to 
life again," is the purport of the Hebrew). But Absalom and 
all Israel (the year) came to Jerusalem (summer solstice) with 
Ahithophel (summer), where Hushai met him, exclaiming: 
" God save the king." Absalom was not a little surprised at 
the treachery of his father's old friend. Hushai (now at the 
place where the Earth moves slowest in its orbit), however, 
smoothed the matter over to the satisfaction of Absalom, when 
the latter ordered Ahithophel to give him counsel as to what 
should be done. Ahithophel said unto Absalom : " Go in 
unto thy father's concubines " (v. 21). By the addition of one 
day at the end of every fourth year, as was, and is still custom- 
ary, there is an annual overplus of 11 m. 12 s. " This differ- 
ence amounts to a little more than three day's in the course of 
four hundred years " {Loomis 1 Astron., p. 73). In about 1,270 
years, therefore, this difference amounts to ten days=the last 
third of Yirgo, which would thus extend beyond the equinoc- 
tial line into the winter hemisphere. These ten days were the 
concubines David left to keep the house " (xv, 16). Being on 
the winter side of the year, David (the summer Sun) could not 
reach them, while Absalom, (the winter Sun), " went in unto 
them in the sight of all Israel (v. 22). This, Ahithophel's 
counsel was obtained " at the oracle (word) of God," i. e., from 



332 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the position of Aries at the summer solstice, and was the same 
" both with David and with Absalom :" they both being one — 
the annual Sun ! 

These ten women were the ten degrees by which the shad- 
ow went back on the dial of Ahaz in order to prolong the life 
of Hezekiah (2 Kings xx). 

2 Sam. xvii. In the previous chapter we left Absalom at 
the fall equinox, going in unto his father's concubines. At 
this place (the beginning of the Jewish civil year) Ahithophel 
asked for 12,000 men (the twelve months), with which to 
pursue David " this night " (winter), and come upon him while 
he is weary and weak-handed. He would bring back the 
man sought for, and that would be the same as if all were 
returned. 

Though Ahithophel's advice was pleasing in his eyes, yet 
Absalom wished to consult Hushai (speed) also. Hushai didn't 
think it the proper time, as David was chafed in his mind, and 
was as a bear robbed of her whelps. He was also a man of 
war, and '' behold he is hid now in some pit" (the summer Sun 
was changed into the winter Sun, and, therefore, "hid in some 
pit "= the winter hemisphere). He would, therefore, advise 
that all Israel be gathered unto Absalom from Dan to Beer- 
sheba, i. e., that Absalom (the winter Sun) should perform the 
circuit of the Zodiac, or year ; thus winter would last the entire 
year. This was bad counsel, and Hushai knew that if Absalom 
undertook to follow it, he must certainly fail, as the event 
proved. But what cared Hushai? His object was to defeat 
Absalom. " We will come upon him in some place where he 
shall be found (how strange !) and light upon him as the dew 
falleth upon the ground," i. e., in the spring. Though Hushai's 
counsel was intended for David's benefit, Absalom, like many 
another foolish son, preferred it to that of Ahithophel, and the 
spy compassed his end — the ruin of David's enemy and son. 
The next thing was to communicate with David. They sent 
word to Jonathan (food), and to Ahimaaz (summer), who stayed 
in En-rogel (foot-fountain = winter), by a wench (Virgo setting 
near the spring equinox), " and they went and told David." 
Notwithstanding their precaution, they were not undiscovered, 



DAVID. 333 

for u a lad (Aquarius) saw them and told Absalom." Jonathan 
and Ahimaaz went to a man's (Shimei's=: Samuel's) house in 
Bahurim (earth in Libra at the spring equinox), where there 
was a well (latter rain). In this well the two spies hid them- 
selves, the woman (Virgo setting) covering them with a cloth 
sprinkled over with ground corn. Absalom's servants soon 
appeared, and asked of the woman after the spies. She lied, 
like the harlot Rahab (Josh, ii, 4), saying, they had gone over 
the brook. Failing in their search, Absalom's servants (the 
winter constellations) returned to Jerusalem (the upper or day 
hemisphere). After their departure, Jonathan and Ahimaaz 
came up out of the well, and told David to get over the brook 
(the latter rain) as soon as possible, for Ahithophel had 
counseled against him, which was true. David, therefore, 
hurried on, and by morning all had passed over Jordan, or the 
spring equinox. 

Poor Ahithophel was foiled and undone. Chagrined at his 
want of success, he saddled his ass (Cancer), went home (to the 
summer solstice), put his house in order (at midsummer the 
universe seems fixed upon a right-angled, or Catholic cross, and 
in order) and, like Judas, hung himself. David next came to 
Mahanaim (two-camps = the two equinoxes). Here Absalom, 
having passed the Jordan, made Amasa (burden-bearer) captain 
instead of Joab (father-Sun). Amasa was the son (following 
the old rule) of Ithra (plenty = summer), by Abigail (my father 
is exaltation), daughter of Nahash (serpent = Zodiac), sister of 
Zeruiah (cleft-Sun), Joab's mother. So Israel and Absalom 
pitched in the land of Grilead {witness hill=the hemisphere 
opposite the one they occupy in their seasons), and it was spring. 

It now came to pass, when "David was come to Mahanaim 
(the fall equinox) that Shobi (captain = the gathered crops), son 
of Nahash of Rabbah (serpent of summer), of the children of 
Ammon, and Machir (merchant), the son of Ammiel (Ram's 
people) of Lo-debar (literally, no-word; paraphrastically, no- 
pasture ?= winter), and Barzillai (made of iron = winter), brought 
beds, basins, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and butter, and 
honey for David and the people that were with him in the 
wilderness, for they were " hungry, and weary, and thirsty." 



334 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

2 Sam. xviii. Having numbered the people and arranged 
them by thousands and by hundreds, with captains over each 
division, David sent them forth in three divisions : a third part 
went with Ittai, the Gittite= winter : a third with Abishai 
(father of plenty— spring), and a third with Joab (Sun-father 
= summer). These were the three seasons of the year, of four 
months each. 

The king thought to go with them, but the people objected. 
(Summer couldn't be winter.) He then gave strict injunctions 
concerning the young man Absalom — "Deal gently with the 
young man for my sake, even with Absalom." This was said 
in the hearing of all. The reason is obvious, and need not be 
stated. Absalom met the servants of David (at the end of 
summer), in the " wood of Ephraim " (season of fruits). The 
conflict was terrible. Twenty thousand (the original don't say 
men) were slaughtered, mostly on Absalom's side, "the wood" 
devouring most of them. But, alack-a-day ! for David's unduti- 
ful son Absalom ! As he was riding upon a mule (the weather 
between winter and summer) under " a great oak," (spring 
equinox), " his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken 
up between the heavens and the earth," i. e., winter ended, but 
his mule (the Sun's ecliptic) ran away from under him. All 
this was seen by a certain man (Samuel =Earth), who told 
Joab : " I saw Absalom hanged in an oak." Joab asked why 
he didn't kill him. To Samuel this was blasphemy. He 
wouldn't put forth his hand against the king's son on any 
account. But Joab was made of sterner stuff. He took three 
darts (the three months between the spring equinox and winter 
solstice) in his hand, and thrust them through poor Absalom's 
heart. To make himself sure beyond a doubt, that he was 
dead, he ordered ten young men the first ten days of the new 
year) to surround him, and smite him and kill him — so the 
work was thoroughly done. 

Joab (the four constellations Leo, Yirgo, Libra, Scorpio, 
the first two of which had just set, bringing the Sun up to 
the spring equinox, where winter — Absalom — ended) now 
blew his trumpet (the horns of Aries), and the battle ceased. 
They then cast Absalom into a great pit (oblivion) " and laid a 



david. 335 

very great pile of stones (the six months of summer) upon 
him." The pile which Absalom reared up in his life-time he 
called Absalom's place = winter. 

Ahimaaz (spring) the son of Zadok (spring equinox) now 
wanted to carry the news to David (summer Sun), but Joab 
held him back, letting Cushi (Leo), the eldest son of Ham 
(summer— Joab), go. Next day (next month) Ahimaaz set off, 
and overran Cushi (spring goes before summer). Approach- 
ing the king, Ahimaaz exclaimed, " all is well," i. e., it is sum- 
mer. David, however, asked after Absalom. Ahimaaz could 
only say he saw a great tumult (the bluster of spring), but 
when Cushi (Leo, or July, the first of the summer months, 
and therefore summer) came, he could say positively " Absalom 
is dead." David was much moved. He went up to his cham- 
ber (summer) weeping (the rainy season) as he went, and 
exclaiming — " O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absa- 
lom ! " All this time David sat between two gates — the 
two equinoxes. 

2 Sam. xix. David continued to mourn, crying with a 
loud voice, " O my son Absalom, O Absalom my son," until 
he "had shamed the faces of all his servants. Joab (summer), 
tired of his senseless moaning, at last met him, and told him 
to go forth and speak comfortably to the people — let them 
have warm weather and good crops ; for said he, " I swear 
(seven) by the Lord (summer), if thou go not forth, it will be 
worse for thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth 
until now," i. e., there will be no crops. 

So David " arose and sat in the gate " (fall equinox), w 7 hile 
Israel fled every man to his tent, i. e., the Sun being on the 
equinox was in no particular constellation, but between Virgo 
and Libra. All the people (constellations) were, therefore, at 
strife with one another, because the six months just ended had 
reversed their apparent positions in the heavens. The king 
fled out of the land (summer) for Absalom (winter), who, six 
months before, was slain by Joab. Now, why not recall the 
king (the Sun, to the spring equinox)? This, David, con- 
sulting with Zadok (the equinox) and Abiathar (autumn), 
exhorted the elders of Judah (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer) 



336 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

to do. " Ye are my bones and my flesh," said he. " Say ye 
the same to Amasa (burden = Sagittarius), who shall be captain 
of the host (the four winter constellations) in the room of 
Joab (the first month of summer), who had gone on ahead 
of the king " (the Sun), i. e., summer had just ended. David 
must, therefore, ride over the constellations, Sagittarius, Capri- 
cornus, Aquarius and Pisces, before he can reach Jordan (the 
spring equinox) ; and this he must do by consent of Judah 
(the four spring months). All the parties moved on as one man. 
" So the king returned and came to Jordan," where Judah 
met him at Gilgal (spring equinox) to ferry him over. Here 
David also met Shimei (Samuel = Earth) the son of Gera 
(enmity = winter), a Benjaminite, because he (the Earth) was in 
Libra, which was of Bah u rim. 

Shimei had 1,000 men of Benjamin (the Earth was in 
Libra) with him, besides Ziba, a servant of the house of Saul 
(i. e., the same Earth which had served the past winter), his 
fifteen sons (the 15 ancient constellations south of the zodiac) 
and his twenty — the round number being used instead of 21, 
the true number — servants (the 21 ancient constellations north 
of the zodiac). " These all went over Jordan before the king " 
(v. 17), apparently, but really at the same time. The king's 
household " went over in a ferry-boat " (ark of the covenant). 
Shimei now fell down oefore the king as he went over Jordan, 
i. e., as the Sun passes over the equinox in spring, the Earth 
goes over it in the opposite direction (see the zodiac). Thus 
he atoned for his former offense of cursing the king as he went 
out of Jerusalem (summer) six months before (see ante, chap. 
xvi). Having confessed his sin, he now sought the king's good 
will, by being the first of the house of Joseph to go down to 
meet him (v. 20). But Abishai (spring), the son of Zeruiah 
(dividing Sun = the equinox), asked: "Shall not Shimei be 
put to death for cursing the Lord's anointed ? " David 
answered that he had not now anything to do with Satan 
(Satan, in the singular, not " adversaries" in the plural), and 
assured Shimei, " Thou shalt not die " (v. 23). 

Mephibosheth now put in his appearance to the king, in 
the raw, just as he was, barefoot, long-bearded and with 



DAVID. 337 

unwashed clothes, They met at Jerusalem. The king asked 
him why he hadn't come before. Mephibosheth replied that 
his servant (the Earth in winter) had deceived him — bore no 
crop. But David's servant had brought him upon his ass 
(Cancer), as he was lame, and he was now ready to sit at the 
king's table, i. e., to furnish him food. 

Barzillai (iron = winter = the constellations Sagittarius, 
Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, now above the horizon at 
Sun-rise, and, therefore, a Gileadite=a witness-heap, because 
their position testifies that spring has come) came down from 
Rogelim (feet = Pisces, the last of the winter constellations) 
" to conduct the king over Jordan." He was very aged, even 
fourscore years old := the four winter months. He fed David 
while he was at Mahanaim, i. e., during spring, being a very 
great man ; went with him a little way over Jordan (the 
variable weather at this time), and then returned, leaving 
Chimham (last-end=the balance of the season) to go the rest 
of the way with him to Gilgal (the fall equinox). 

The king kissed Barzillai, as they parted, and blessed him, 
i. e., gave him the spring crop. After this the king and Chim- 
ham jogged along together to Gilgal. All the people of 
Judah (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,) and half the people 
of Israel (Leo, Virgo,) conducted the king, the Sun, over 
this space or period of six months (v. 40). Reader, weigh this 
last verse attentively. 

Then the men of Israel (the constellations Leo, Yirgo, 
Libra, Scorpio) said to the king, " why have the men of Judah, 
our brethren, stolen thee away," and brought the king and his 
household over Jordan ? The men of Judah answered, " because 
the king is near of kin to us," i. e., most of the crops grow 
during the four months of spring; why, then are ye angry? 
Have we eaten at the king's cost? — meaning that these four 
months not only feed themselves, but the rest also. The men 
of Israel said : We have ten parts in the king, i. e., "we have 
the sun and moon, stars, clouds, light, wind, water, air, dark- 
ness, fire. These are the physical decalogue of heaven " (Clem. 
Alex., B. vi, chap. xvi). This is equivalent to saying they had 
the whole (the year formerly contained but ten months), and 
22 



338 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

hence Israel concluded: "And we have more right in David 
than ye," which was true, for Israel had two of the southern 
constellations (darkness), while Judah had none. " Why, then, 
despise us?" Why reject our advice in relation to bringing 
back our king? But the words of the men of Judah were 
harsher, or more laborious, i. e., more productive, than the 
words of the men of Israel ! — furnished more food. 

2 Sam. xx. It is astonishing how many, how infinite, are 
the changes which may be wrought on this " harp of a thousand 
strings " — the year. Witness the following : 

The Sun is now at the autumnal equinox, about to enter 
Libra, when Sheba (the seventh) puts in his appearance. He 
(September) was a man of Belial (prince of the lower world = 
winter = the first of the southern constellations) the son of 
Bich-ri (first-born = Aries); and a Benjamite, i. e., a son of the 
right hand = September = the left hand. He blew a trumpet 
(the horn of Aries, then setting) and said : " We have no part 
in David (or the summer Sun) ; neither have we inheritance in 
the son of Jesse" (<?ss<? =being= life = summer). Therefore, 
" every man to his tents, O Israel." At the equinoxes, the two 
classes of zodiacal constellations are found on opposite sides of 
the equinoctial line ; Leo and Yirgo, the one half of Israel, on 
the one side, and Libra and Scorpio, the other half, on the other 
side. So every man of Israel, i. e., the part represented by 
Libra and Scorpio, " went up from following after David, and 
followed Sheba (Libra), but the men of Judah (Aries, Taurus, 
Gemini and Cancer, with Leo and Yirgo) clave unto their king, 
from Jordan (the equator) even to Jerusalem," i. e., these six 
constellations were then, at the fall equinox, to be found in the 
upper hemisphere at sunrise ; Aries was about setting, to be 
followed by the rest in due order. 

David now "took the ten women, his concubines" (no, not 
concubines, but separated women), which rested, or remained 
for surplusage of the house (Yirgo), and gave them to the 
house of surplusage, held them there and fed them, hut did 
not go in unto them. So they were bound and forsaken (by 
David) until the day of their death (See 2 Kings xx). This is 
the better translation, and indicates more plainly the true mean- 



DAVID. 339 

ins of the text. The reference is to a defective calendar. The 
ancients, like us, appended six hours to the end of every year. 
This being too much by 11 minutes 12 seconds, will, in a little 
less than 1,300 years, amount to 10 days, called ivomen, because 
attached to the constellation Yirgo, the last of the. northern 
constellations. David (the summer Sun) could not " go in 
unto them," because they ran beyond the fall equinox into the 
winter hemisphere, but yet were counted to Yirgo. Absalom 
could, and did, " go in unto them, in the sight of all Israel," 
from and after the fall equinox. Thus were they forsaken by 
David ; they were not widows, inasmuch as David still lived, 
but were turned over to Absalom (the winter Sun) and his 
successors. This is signified by the term, " widowhood of life" 
in the marginal reading. 

Then said the king to Amasa ( winter =Shem): Assemble 
me the men of Judah (spring =Japheth) within three days" 
(months). But Amasa tarried longer than " the set time," by 
the amount of the surplusage above named = ten days. Fear- 
ing that Sheba would do him more injury than Absalom had 
done, David (Sun entering Aries) ordered Abishai (spring) to 
take his lord's servants, and pursue Sheba (Libra). Abishai 
was followed by Joab's (summer = Ham) men and the Cher- 
ethites and Pelethites (Philistines). 

When they were at the great stone (Beth-el = Aries), in 
Gibeon (Sun's hill = spring equinox), Amasa went before them 
(winter was ended). Joab's garment was girded (the western 
horizon cut him in the middle, half being above and half be- 
low the horizon), with a sword in its sheath, which, as he went 
forth (set or disappeared below the horizon), fell out. Joab now 
seized Amasa by the beard (harvest), and, as if in the act of 
kissing him, smote him under the fifth rib, so that he shed his 
bowels (the latter rain) upon the ground, and he died — winter 
ended. Poor " Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the 
///^A-way=the day hemisphere (v. 12). Six months later, 
" when the man (Earth) saw that all the people stood still 
(autumnal equinox), he removed Amasa out of the higk-waj, 
into the field (zodiac), and cast a cloth (darkness) upon him, i. e., 
the winter constellations were below the horizon at sunrise. 



340 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Amasa, being removed out of their way, the people went 
on after Joab in pursuit of Sheba (Libra). Joab went through 
ail the (four) tribes of Israel unto Abel-beth-maachah (meadow- 
of-the-poised-house= Libra), and unto all the Berites (dwellers 
at the w^lls=the former rain of autumn), where the people 
again came together (v. 14). They now besieged Abel-beth- 
maachah, and were near capturing it, when a wise woman (the 
witch of Endor= Virgo), hailing Joab, asked him what he 
wanted, because, said she, it is customary to ask counsel at 
Abel. I am one of the peaceful and faithful in Israel (one of 
the summer months), but thou seekest to destroy a city and a 
mother (Virgo) in Israel. Why wilt thou swallow up the in- 
heritance of the Lord (the summer crop)? Joab protested he 
only wanted a man of Mount Ephraim (two lands=spring and 
autumn), Sheba, the son of Bichri (the first-born = Aries), for 
he had rebelled against the king even David (winter against 
summer). Indeed, if this was all, she would throw Sheba's head 
over the wall to him. She did so (Sun passed from Virgo to ' 
Libra), and every man went into his tent (the twelve constella- 
tions are again evenly divided — see zodiac). Joab now tooted 
his trumpet (Aries setting), and returned to Jerusalem to the 
king. Joab was now over all the host of Israel, Benaiah (sum- 
mer solstice) was over (opposite to) the Cherethites and Pel- 
ethites=the Philistines. Adoram (zenith) was over the tribute 
(mas=ipmmg = shortening days) ; Jehoshaphat = Sun-judge = 
winter solstice. Sheva (nothingness) was scribe = the point of 
beginning ; and Zadok and Abiathar were the fall and spring 
equinoxes. Ira (the Sun) was high-priest, or watcher = bishop. 

2 Sam. xxi. Here we are again introduced to the unfortu- 
nate Gibeonites (Sun-hill-men — the peasantry). Poor fellows! 
Joshua (ix, 15, 23) cursed them and made them " hewers of 
wood and drawers of water for the house of my God " {Elohi= 
my Sun ram). They were, then, near God. Perhaps they 
were his children, as our sainted preachers tell us the poor are 
the children of God ! Saul, according to the first verse of this 
chapter, slew them. Of this fact there can be no doubt, as 
Saul was a very wicked man. God got mad about it, and 
brought on a famine (God, or Aries setting in the fall brought 



DAVID. 341 

on winter) in the days of David, which lasted three years 
(months), and thus punished the innocent for this wicked act 
of Saul, who had been dead about twenty-five years. 

Saul's, as I have all along indicated, was, as it is here called, 
a bloody house (winter). "Saul slew the Gibeonites." The 
declaration is sweeping, and must mean all the Gibeonites. 
But they were few — " the remnant of the Amorites." How- 
ever, being a peculiar people, as all Bible characters are, they 
came to life again. Indeed, their presence was indispensable 
" to bless the inheritance of the Lord " (the summer crops). 
Though drudges and despised — " hewers of wood and drawers 
of water," robbed of their substance, and even slain, the nabobs 
could'nt do without them. David, having now resuscitated 
them, is anxious to appease their anger. But they would have 
neither silver nor gold of Saul or his house, nor w T ould they 
take the life of " any man in Israel ; " but let seven men of 
Saul's sons be delivered unto us and we will hang them up 
unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul (the day hemisphere at sun- 
rise in spring, where are the winter constellations). The king 
gave them the two sons of Bizpah (coal, Isa. vi, 6= Virgo in 
spring), Armoni (Aries), and Mephibosheth (Libra), and the 
five sons (the intervening live winter months) of Michal (Da- 
vid's wife), which she (Virgo setting) brought up for Adriel 
(Barn's flock=the summer constellations), the son of Barzillai 
(winter), the Meholathite (son of summer, with its seven 
months, or the Lyre, to which the term Meholathite refers). 

These seven winter constellations (men) were delivered up 
into the hands of the Gibeonites, at the spring equinox, who 
hung them up " in the hill before the Lord." Thus were these 
poor sons of Saul put to death " in the first days of harvest," 
i. e., they were all supposed to be above the horizon at Sun- 
rise. Bizpah (Virgo setting), daughter of Ariah (howling-Sun — 
spring, when the wind blows), spread her sackcloth, i. e., be- 
came a night constellation, watched the poor victims until the 
rainy season in autumn began, when she rose above the hori- 
zon and became a day constellation. When David heard what 
Bizpah had done, he went, i. e., passed the summer, and took 
the bones (frame-work) of Saul and Jonathan (these same seven 



342 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

constellations) from the men of Jabesh-Gilead (dry witness- 
hill = upper hemisphere in summer), who had stolen them from 
Beth-shan (house of rest= winter solstice), where the Phil- 
istines had hung them. These he buried in Zelah (side) of 
Benjamin (Libra), in the sepulcher of Kish (man-of-the-bow = 
Sagittarius). After this (i. e., during the winter), God was en- 
treated for the land, i. e., his return to the spring equinox was 
asked for. 

Of course, there was war again with the Philistines ; David 
with his servants went down and fought them until he got 
faint, i. e., until the end of winter. Ishbi-benob * ("my seat is 
in Nob " = the spring equinox), son of Kapha (shade= winter), 
who was girt with a new sword (equinoctial line in spring), 
thought to have slain David, but Abishai (spring) smote the 
Philistine, and killed him (spring killed winter). David's men 
now swore he should no more go out to fight, lest the light of 
Israel be quenched, i. e., spring came on. 

After this, there was another battle had with the Philistines 
at Gob (exaltation, an astrological term for the Sun at the 
spring equinox). Here Sibbecai (the interweaver, Sun in 
Aries=Moses' burning-bush) slew Saph (the "entrance place" 
to summer), one of the sons of Papha (winter). 

In the next, or nineteenth verse, we have a third battle in 
(not a) Gob, when Elhanan (the beneficent Ram = Aries du- 
ring summer), the son of Jair-oregim (spring equinox), a Beth- 
lehemite (son of winter), slew the brother (summer) of Goliath 
of Gath (winter), " the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's 
beam " (the equinoctial line). In chapter xvii of 1 Samuel, 
vv. 49, 50, 51, it will be found that David, the son of Jesse, 
performed this same feat. Both accounts are true, for Elhanan 
and David were both personifications of the same things sum- 
mer. 

As to the fourth battle described in the twentieth verse, 
any one with half an eye can see that it relates to the equinoc- 
tial day in autumn. The fingers and toes answer to the twen- 
ty-four hours of that day ; the first twelve, to the light half, 
the last twelve to the dark half. When this giant defied Israel, 

* Ishbi-benob is the same as Goliath of Gath. 



david. 343 

Jonathan, the son of Shimei (summer and its crops), slew him. 
Tims the Israelites or summer, in four great battles, conquered 
the year, i. e., furnished food to the animal world] 

2 Sam. xxii. David here breaks forth in a song of thanks- 
giving for the Sun-ram's powerful deliverance, and thenceforth 
during the year, for his manifold blessings. The Sun-ram is 
his rock, in whom alone he can trust. When in Hell (winter), 
he was surrounded by the waves of death, and the floods 
(rains) of ungodly men (the wintry days), when the Sun and 
Aries (God) are opposed to each other. Then the sorrows of 
Hell (the inconveniences of winter) compassed him about. In 
this, his distress, he called upon the Lord (summer), and cried 
to his Sun-ram (God) ; and he (the Sun-ram) did hear, i. e., 
summer came with all its phenomena. 

2 Sam. xxiii. Here we have the last words of David — a 
description of the year. Summer is productive ; winter, bar- 
ren, as thus: He (David=the Sun) was "raised up on high," 
i. e., came to the spring equinox; astrologically, the place of 
his exaltation. During the next four months (spring), he 
was the anointed of the God of Jacob, or Judah, because then 
the cereals grow ; the succeeding four months (summer) he was 
the sweet psalmist of Israel, because then the grapes ripen and 
wine is made (v. 1). During spring, " the spirit of the Lord," 
or the gentle winds, blow. After mid-summer the Sun rules 
over the earth in the fear of the Gods (Elohim), as then Aries 
descends from his meridian, and winter threatens (v. 3). During 
these eight months he is the light of the morning (the product- 
ive season) when the crops grow. 

It is not so in winter. Then "his house is not so with 
God " (ET), for then he does " not make it (the grass) to grow " 
(v. 5). Belial (winter) is like thorns, which may not be 
handled, except with pitchforks, and then only to be burned 
(v. 7). 

David had mighty men, and these are some of them : Tlu 
Tachmenite, or wise-one, the same is Adino the Eznite, or the 
strong one of Eden, was chief among the captains. He was 
spring. Eleazar (helping-ram = Aries in his zenith) was the 
second. He was the son of Dodo (love= spring), and person- 



:j44 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ated summer. The third was Shammah (waste, desolation , 
ruin = winter), being the same as Shem. These three seasons 
went with David (the Sun) in harvest time to the cave of 
Adullam (resting-place = summer solstice). The Philistines 
were pitched in Rephaim, opposite to the Sun. David was in 
a hold (summer solstice), where there was a lack of water (it 
was the dry season). His three captains broke through the 
Philistines, and brought water from a well (the former rain) 
near the gate (the fall equinox). But David refused to drink 
of it, and poured it out unto the Lord (i. e., summer ended). 

Other valiant men David had — Abishai, Joab and Benaiah, 
who were the same as the three preceding. The last, Benaiah 
(building-Sun = winter solstice), did many valiant deeds; he 
slew two " lions of God " (Leo major and Leo minor, both 
summer constellations, and therefore of God). He went down, 
also, and slew a Sun-lion (ariah), or Leo major, in the midst of 
a pit (winter solstice) in time of snow. Again, like Moses, 
with whom he is thus identified, he slew an Egyptian, who was 
a goodly man. Benaiah was, therefore, honorable among the 
thirty (days of the months), but he was not equal to the first 
three=three seasons of the year. Of course not, for he was 
but one of the three ! 

2 Sam. xxiv. The anger of the Lord was again kindled 
against Israel ; i. e., the weather was hot, and he (the Lord) 
moved David against them to say : " Go number Israel and 
Judah," i. e., set out on your annual mission from the spring 
equinox. In the parallel passage of 1 Chron. xxi, 1, we have: 
"And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to 
number Israel." How's this? Here seems to be a direct 
contradiction — Satan against the Lord! and yet it is not a 
contradiction, for both are true — in fact, are the same. Xow 
my orthodox friend, don't get impatient, but read on. In the 
revolution of the heavens, the cardinal points seem to be con- 
tinually changing. What is the zenith or Lord to-day, will, 
six months hence, become the nadir, or Satan. Hence, the 
same point will appear alternately as God and Devil. Or, by 
.an inspection of the celestial globe, it will be found that, at 
the spring equinox at sunrise in the morning, the summer 



DAVID. 345 

constellations (Lord) are all below the horizon, and the contrary 
of the winter constellations (Satan), which are overhead, or 
above the horizon. Thus, the Lord may order, and Satan 
provoke David to number Judah and Israel. The point of 
departure for Satan was not from the spring equinox, however, 
but from Dan (Scorpio). So the king (J)avid=Sun at the end 
of summer) said to Joab, his captain, " which was (there still) 
with him : " " Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from 
Dan to Beer-sheba" i. e., number all except September, Octo- 
ber, and the ten days surplus time = David's ten wives, or the 
first decade of November. Thus the starting point would be 
from the first day of the second decade of November. Joab 
didn't like the thing a bit, but the king's word prevailed. 

So Joab passed (traveling forward as regards the Sun) over 
the Jordan (Sun's ecliptic), and pitched in Aroer (ruins = the 
winter hemisphere) on the right side of the city in the midst 
of the river of Gad (Aries) toward Jazar (summer). This fixes 
the place of Joab at the fall equinox. Next he came to Gileacl 
(witness heap, i. e., into the night hemisphere), and to Tahtim 
v Hojdshi (tmder-new Moon = probably the first after the fall 
equinox). After this he came to Dan-Jaan (greedy winter) 
and to Zidon (the hunting season) ; then he passed the strong- 
hold of Tyre (the winter solstice), and thence to the cities of 
the Hivites and Canaanites (spring and summer), to the south 
of Judah, even to Beer-sheba (Libra = September). Thus after 
" nine months and twenty days," he arrived at Jerusalem, giv- 
ing as the result of his census 800,000 men that drew the 
sword for Israel, and 500,000 for Judah. These numbers, 
allowing 500,000 for each of the three seasons, and deducting 
for the two months and ten days which were not included (not 
numbered, or gone over) are nearly correct. Thus David soon, 
allowing for the ten days surplusage, which extended beyond 
the fall equinox, found himself in the winter hemisphere. His 
heart now smote him, for he had sinned and done foolishly — 
had got beyond Jahveh's jurisdiction. However, he prayed 
lustily for the Lord to come and take away his iniquity (the 
Sun's south declination). So when he got up in the morning 
(winter solstice), the word of the Lord (summer) came unto 



346 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Gad (Aries on his meridian), David's seer (they were in quar- 
tile aspect), saying, " Go and say unto David," etc. So God 
came to David (Sun in Aries) and told him to choose of the 
three evils, seven years' (months') famine (winter), three months' 
flight before his enemies (the winter months), or three days' 
(months) pestilence (the plague). David chose to fall into 
the hand of the Lord* (summer), rather than into the hand of 
man ; for he feared the Lord less, which was natural. But the 
poor people found greatly to their cost, that it was a " fearful 
thing to fall into the hand of the Lord," for there died of the 
plague 70,000 men (v. 15). 

When the destroying angel was about to lay his hand upon 
Jerusalem (summer solstice), the Lord said : " It is enough — 
stay now thine hand." (The plague usually ceased by mid- 
summer, being destroyed by the hot, dry weather). David 
next bought a "threshing-floor" of'Araunah (stretched-Sun = 
Sun in his zenith, at the summer solstice, — see Inmarfs An- 
cient Faiths, vol. i, p. 277), the Jebusite (dweller at the sum- 
mer solstice), whereupon he built an altar and " offered burnt 
offerings and peace offerings, and the plague was stayed from 
Israel," i. e., it didn't extend into or beyond the month of 
July. Volney says " the plague infallibly ends in the month 
of June" in Egypt {Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i, p. 
255). 

Here ends 2 Samuel, but not the life of David. This is 
concluded in the first book of Kings, second chapter. 

The king (David) was now old (it being near the end of 
summer), and though they covered him with clothes (the crops), 
" he gat no heat." So they put him in bed with Abishag (my 
father is error, in allusion to winter then at hand), a Shunam- 
mite (dweller in peace=Virgo at the end of summer). The 
fair Abishag warmed him awhile, but her consolations were of 
short duration,- as winter soon came. It was then Adonijah 
(the winter Sun), who was the same as Absalom, exalted him- 
self (passed the fall equinox), saying: "I will be king;" and 
" prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run 

* Indeed, David could not do otherwise than he did; for, being at the spring equinox, 
summer (or the Lord) must follow, bringing the -plague in its season— the forepart of 
summer. So with him it was Hobson's choice anyhow. 



DAVID. 347 

before him, precisely as he did under the name of Absalom 
(see 2 Sam. xv, 1). Joab (summer), the son of Zeruiah (cleaver) 
and Abiathar (father of a gift) followed Adonijah ; while Zadok 
the priest, Benaiah (building-Sun=the Sun from the spring 
equinox to the summer solstice), the son of Jehoiada (he knows 
the Sun = Aries at winter solstice), Nathan (the giver), the 
prophet (forteller= spring), Shimei (Earth), and Eei (pasture), 
together with Bath-sheba (Virgo), adhered to the opposite, or 
summer side, with David. These last sought the king (David), 
and told him : "Behold, Adonijah reigneth ; and thou knowest 
it not " (1 Kings i, 18). " He is gone down this day, and hath 
slain oxen and sheep (Aries and Taurus set just then), by the 
stone Zoheleth (serpent = the very one that gave Eve the apple), 
which is by En-rogel" (fountain of the foot=the beginning of 
winter, the foot of the year). Having called all his brethren, 
the king's sons (the summer months) together, where the sons 
of God presented themselves before the Lord with Satan (Job 
i, 6), Adonijah the son of Haggith (the feast of the ingather- 
ing) feasted them. "And behold they eat and drink before 
him and say: "Let king Adonijah live " (see marginal read- 
ing, which is the true one, nothing being said about " God " 
in the Hebrew text). 

Nathan, the prophet (spring), Benaiah (building-Sun), and 
Solomon (the annual Sun) he called not. Hence, these, 
David's adherents, urged him to appoint his successor, remind- 
ing him, meanwhile, that he had sworn that Solomon, his son, 
should reign after him. So David said : " Cause Solomon, my 
son, to ride upon mine own mule (pered, " so called from his 
quick paee,"—Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 864: the Sun (Earth) moves 
faster in his ecliptic in winter than in summer), and bring him 
down to Gihon (the river which runs south from Eden (sum- 
mer) around Ethiopa= winter solstice). Here at Gihon, Zadok 
and Nathan anointed Solomon king, as instructed, blew their 
trumpet (Aries on his meridian) in turn, and proclaimed : " Let 
king Solomon live" (1 Kings i, 34). The adherents of Solo- 
mon followed him up to the throne of David (summer solstice), 
he being appointed king over Judah and Israel. 

Adonijah, hearing what David had done ; that his younger 



348 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

brother already sat upon the throne, and, fearing Solomon, 
came down from the altar (the high-place, or slaughter-house = 
summer solstice), whither he had lied for safety, bowed to the 
king (went to the fall equinox), and received the order : " Go 
to thine house " = winter. 

1 Kings ii. JSTow the days of David drew nigh ; when he 
ought to die. So he charged his son Solomon to be very pious, 
to walk in the ways of the Lord (summer), to keep his com- 
mandments, and all that. But though so very sanctimonious, 
and on the brink of the grave (winter), he didn't fail to give 
his son his "legacy of blood." " Thou knowest," said David, 
" what Joab did to me," and he might have added : " what I 
have hitherto winked at from motives of policy :" " Let not 
his hoar head go down to the grave in peace " (when the Sun, 
Solomon, passes the winter solstice, Leo, the first or head of 
the four constellations called Joab, sets, i. e., goes down to the 
grave just as " the days begin to lengthen and the cold begins 
to strengthen)." Thou hast also Shimei (Earth) with thee 
which cursed me when I (the Sun) went to Mahanaim (fall 
equinox) ; hold him not guiltless, " but his hoar head bring 
thou down to the grave with blood," i. e., let the earth become 
" dreary and desolate" as in the beginning. 

Considered as a man, these dying words of David are ter- 
rible, and such, it would seem, as no man could possibly utter 
at such a time. My system explains their true import — sum- 
mer passes, winter comes. 

" So, David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the 
city of David," i. e., when Solomon was anointed king at the 
winter solstice, David died, or rather slept, and was afterward 
buried in the summer solstice, or the Sun's house ; he being 
known thereafter by the name of Solomon = the Sun. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SOLOMON. 

SOLOMON now sat upon the throne of David, his father. 
Adonijah sued through Beth-sheba for " Abishag the Shu- 
nammite, to wife." As Bath-sheba (Yirgo) approached, Solo- 
mon (the Sun) rose up to meet her, bowed to her, and gave her 
a seat at his right hand (Sun at spring equinox). Making her 
business known, she said, " I desire one small petition of thee." 
"Ask on, my mother," said the king, "for Twill not say thee 
nayP " Let Abishag, the Shunammite, be given to Adonijah 
thy brother to wife (1 Kings ii, 21). Whew ! This was too 
much. For this usurper to ask for his own dear Bath-sheba, 
his mother, his wife, his sister — yea, even his own daugh- 
ter — was downright insult, and must not be borne. Forget- 
ting his promise, "I will not say thee nay," Solomon got 
mad, went for Adonijah, and swore by the Lord (the summer 
then just beginning), "Adonijah (winter) shall be put to death 
this (equinoctial) day (of spring)." Thus Solomon now had 
his pretense for doing what was previously premeditated. So 
he ordered Benaiah the son of Jehoiada (Sun in Aries), " and 
he fell upon him that he died," i. e., the Sun passing the spring 
equinox, winter ended. 

Solomon next banished Abiathar (father of plenty) to An- 
athoth (answers to prayers=the crops=autumn and its fruits). 
Joab, meanwhile, fled to the tabernacle of the Lord (spring 
equinox), whither he was followed by Benaiah (building Sun), 
who ordered Joab to come forth, but "Joab said, Nay; but I 
will die here." Benaiah, therefore, reported Joab to the king. 
The king ordered Benaiah to take Joab at his word, " fall upon 
him and bury him." For he killed two men " more righteous 
and better than he" — Abner (father of light=spring) and 



350 THE SCIENCE OP THE BIBLE. 

Amasa (winter). Let him die in his turn. " So Benaiah (the 
lengthening days) went up, and fell upon him and slew him" 
(v. 34). They buried poor Joab in his own house in the wil- 
derness. Being a murderer and a would-be fornicator, he, 
doubtless, deserved his fate. Solomon now put Benaiah the 
son of Jehoiada, in the room of Joab over the host (summer 
solstice), and Zadok (the just^the fall equinox) in the place of 
Abiathar (father of plenty). But this was only a change of 
name for the same things. 

Solomon (the annual Sun) next turned his attention to 
Shimei (Earth), the time being spring. Here, as with Joab, he 
only wanted an excuse. He, therefore, told Shimei to go and 
build him a house at Jerusalem and dwell in it ; that should he 
leave and pass the brook Kedron (dark-Sun = the fall equinox), 
he should surely die. Shimei answered u all right," arose and 
saddled his ass, and at the end of three years (months) found 
himself at Grath (the fall equinox). Solomon now called to 
him and told him of his premeditated wickedness, at the same 
time reminding him of his former ill treatment of his father ; 
" therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine 
own head " (v. 44), i. e., winter was again upon the earth. " So 
the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, which went 
out (Aries set in the west at the end of summer), and fell upon 
him, and he died," winter began. Thus were the injunctions 
of David, his father, carried out by Solomon, and thus was his 
kingdom established, i. e., the Jewish civil year began just 
then. 

Solomon, being now ready, at the fall equinox, for active 
work, "made an affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt" (win- 
ter), i. e., the summer became the winter Sun, and took Pha- 
raoh's daughter (Moses' Ethiopian wife= Virgo in winter) — it 
is not said " to wife." Having taken her, he carried her to 
the house, or city of David (summer solstice), " until he had 
made an end of building his own house (the year), and the 
house of the Lord (the seven months of summer), and the 
wall of Jerusalem round about " (circuit of the year). 

Though Solomon loved the Lord (summer) and sacrificed 
in high places (summer months), he went to Gibeon (the Sun's 



SOLOMON. 351 

hill = either of the solstices — here that of winter), where "the 
Lord appeared to him in a dream by night (winter) and told 
him to wish. Solomon simply asked ability " to discern be- 
tween good and bad," i. e.,* between summer and winter, that 
he might reign the whole year. This was extremely modest, 
and God (Aries on his meridian, at the winter solstice) granted 
his wish, 1 Kings iii, 11). Soon, however, Solomon awoke 
(spring) and found " it was a dream." He at once proceeded to 
Jerusalem (summer solstice), where his wisdom was put to the 
test, and it was not found wanting ; for, there came two women 
(Virgo, of the two halves of summer, harlots, i. e., rejected 
women, for Virgo was not then at either of the equinoxes, 
where she would be wife or concubine,) before Solomon (Sun 
at summer solstice) ; % the one bringing a dead child (the past 
three months), and the other, a living child (the next three 
months just entered upon). Both claimed the living child. 
In the absence of all evidence, Solomon proposed to divide the 
living child, and give half to each claimant. To this the 
rightful owner objected, preferring to lose the child to herself,, 
in order to preserve its life. By this device, Solomon discov- 
ered the rightful owner of the child, and gave it to her, i. e., 
the Sun, leaving his solstice, passed from the dead to the liv- 
ing half of summer. 

1 Kings iv. Solomon was now king over all Israel. He 
appointed Azariah (whom the Sun helps = Japheth), the son of 
Zadok (the just=equinox) the priest; Elihoreph (Aries setting 
= Ham and Ahiah ; brother Sun = Shem), sons of Shisha (the 
Sun), scribes, i. e., the three seasons which encircle the year. 
Jehoshaphat (the Judging-Sun = sun at spring equinox), the son 
of Ahilud (broth er-born= fall equinox), was made recorder, 
remembrancer, begetter, or spring. Benaiah (building-Sun) the 
son of Jehoiada (known of the Sun) was placed over the host 
(the seven summer months), i. e., the Sun in Aries began the 
year. Zadok (the just) and Abiathar (father of plenty) were 
priests, i. e., elders, or chiefs. Azariah (spring) the son of 
Nathan (the giver) was chief officer, and Zabud (a gift = the 
crops) was the king's friend. Ahishar (brother of the upright 

* Hercules, it is said, made a similar choice. 



352 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

= winter) was over the household, i. e., he was the eater, and 
Adoniram (lord of hight— summer solstice) the son of Abda 
(for Abdael= servant of the Ram) was over the tribute (the 
crops). Besides these, " Solomon had twelve officers over all 
Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household ; 
each man his month in a year made provision " (v. T). The 
names of these twelve are given, but as they represent the 
twelve months, I need not trouble the reader with them. 

Solomon's family was a very large one, and required im- 
mense daily supplies. To be able to procure these, a com- 
mensurate amount of wisdom was necessary. With this the 
Lord supplied him as above noted. He spake 3,000 proverbs, 
and his songs numbered exactly "a thousand and five" (v. 32). 
He spake of trees, plants, animals, in fact of all things ; noth- 
ing escaped his sagacity, i. e., his (the Sun's) genial influence 
was everywhere felt. Indeed the fame of his wisdom was so 
noised abroad, that the queen of Sheba (of the seven = Yirgo= 
his wife and mother) having heard of it, came " to prove him 
with hard questions " (Sun in Yirgo). Having satisfied her 
curiosity, she told Solomon that, though she disbelieved what 
was told her until she saw for herself: " behold, the half was 
not told me," i. e., the year was not half gone when the Sun 
entered Yirgo (x, 7). 

" The visit of the Queen of Sheba, marks the culminating 
point of Solomon's glory" (Smith's Old Test. Hist., p. 4S(5), 
which is certainly true, for when this meeting took place (Sun 
in Yirgo), the feast of the " ingathering " was held, and " the 
whole of the chief fruits of the ground, the corn, the wine, 
and the oil were gathered in " (Bib. Diet., Art. Tabernacles, 
Feast of). On the departure of this renowned queen (at the 
fall equinox), Solomon, the wisest among men, entered the 
lower hemisphere, where he was 

" Led by fraud to build 
His temple right against the temple of God 
On that opprobrious hill; and made his grove 
The pleasant valley of Hinnom — Zophet thence, 
And black Gehenna called — the type of Hell." 

Besides the " cedar trees out of Lebanon " (southern con- 



solomo^. 353 

stellations in summer), and the " hewed stones " (twelve con- 
stellations), Solomon (the Sun) required immense quantities of 
gold for the ornamentation of the Lord's house (summer). 
This he obtained from the land of Ophir* (the East=spring 
equinox) ; for he had " a ship " (not " navy ") of Tarshish (when 
the Sun rises in Aries, the ship Argo is on its meridian with 
Cancer) with the ship of Hiram (high-hole=the meridian) — (1 
Kings x, 22). This was the same ship of ships, which Solomon 
(Sun in Aries) made in Ezion-Geber (back-bone of the man= 
summer. The man of the almanac answers to the earth during 
the year ; the truak= summer ; the lower half= winter), which 
is beside Eloth (Rams = Aries, which is then in quartile aspect 
with Cancer and the ship Argo). This ship (Argo) of Tarshish 
once in three years (i. e., at the end of the three seasons, or 
every year) brought gold, silver, etc., to Solomon, i. e., the 
Sun apparently moving from Aries to Cancer, the opposite 
point in the heavens (Hiram) keeping pace the while, brought 
the "golden fleece" of the Argonauts, and the harvests of the 
husbandman. 

" Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one 
year, was six hundred three score and six (666= the number of 
the Sun's seal) talents." This 66Q is also the number of the 
heast (Sether= winter), and is made up by adding together the 
numbers represented by the Hebrew letters composing the 
n&me Sethur, "linD : thlls D= 60 > n=400, )=6, and ^ = 200, 
in all Q66. In fact gold (sunbeams) entered largely into the 
Lord's house (summer). Spring, with the ancients, was the 
golden age (See Faber\s Pag. Idol., vol. i, p. 10). Spring, on 
the Mithraic monuments, was indicated by a calf 's head, and 
the budding (almug) tree, as shown by the accompanying cut 
copied from Sir William Drummond's Edijpus Judaicus.\ 

* As to the locality of Ophir (over) theologians have ever disagreed; all has been con- 
jecture, and " more than conjecture no one can have in this matter " (Prid. Con., vol. i, 
p. 67). In the Hebrew text, I think I can detect the work of the giant finger of deception. 
The Hebrew is Auphir for which Gesenius can find no root. By inspection, it is evident 
that, dropping the serviles u and i, we have Apher; change the A for 0. which is allow- 
able, and we get Opher—a calf, or young animal. But why change Auphir to Opher? 
Let the theologian answer. 

t For the benefit of the curious reader, a more definite description of this cut will be 
necessary. The picture as a whole is a hieroglyphic description of the Lord's Temple, or 
summer. The almug, or budding tree of spring (1 Kings x, 11) is on the right, with the 

28 



354 



THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 



A like cut may be found in Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, 
pi. 215. The word ahriug is composed of El— Aries, or March^ 
and mug, to flow out, or sprout = the budding trees, of spring. 




/Jja/f/rr>-C0\ 



The temple of the Lord (summer) being completed (see 
Tabernacle and Temple, ante), it must next be dedicated* 
This was done in the month Ethnaim (gifts), when the feast of 
the ingathering was held. It was right here, too, that Solomon 

calf's head and the torch half elevated. The Phrygian youth on the bull slaying him. 
denoted the Sun in Taurus at the spring equinox. The dog (Canis Major, rising with 
Taurus) drinks his blood. The Lion, couchant, refers to mid-summer; the Serpent is the 
Sun's ecliptic. The Bull's tail, ending in two wheat ears, refers to the harvest which took 
place as the Sun reached the end of the constellation. The tree, with the Scorpion, 
loaded with fruit, denoted autumn. The Scorpion, it was fabled, devoured the Bull's 
secrets (testiculi tauri=& group of stars so named in his hinder part) The Raven pre- 
saged the coming winter. 

The young man at the left and above, with elevated torch, symbolized spring; the old 
man below him, with reversed torch=autumn. 

In the top, we have the four horses with driver=the year: the man with the snake 
coiled four times about him=winter; the car with the seven flaming altars=summer; the 
four altars on the right of the flying man with the serpent coiled about him, denote the 
four spring months=Uzza. who died when the oxen stumbled (2 Sam. vi. 6), and the three 
on the left, the three months the ark remained with Obed-Edom (2 Sam. vi, 11). This pic- 
ture points to a date of over 2,000 years anterior to the Creation of Genesis. It was taken 
from Dr. Hyde's Hist, of the Religion of the Ancient Persians. 

Ahio, who was the same as Moses, drave the cart. As he went down from the 
mountain his face was horned. Look at him. 



solomon. 355 

blessed all the congregation, i. e., gave the people food (the 
crops of summer) for winter. This ceremony of the dedication, 
particularly of the long prayer, which the Bishop Colenso says 
is " certainly Jeremiah's" (12th Lect. on the Pent.), must have 
been extremely interesting and imposing. 

Solomon now (after the fall eqninox) fell away from the 
Lord (summer), for he " loved many strange women " Yirgo 
during the winter). He had, besides 700 legal wives, 300 
concubines — 1,000 in all. They belonged to five different 
tribes (the five winter months, — see 1 Kings xi, 1). Eo won- 
der these strange, or winter women turned Solomon's heart 
after other gods (Aries during winter) ; for his heart was not 
wholly with the Lord (i. e., it was not confined to summer) 
like his father's. The word Solomon is made up of three 
words, each denoting the Sun : Sol, the alone, or winter Sun ; 
aum, or o?n, the living, or spring Sun, and on, the hot, or sum- 
mer Sun. These three words, or syllables, combined, produce 
Solomon, or the annual Sun. Solomon's heart, then, w T as not 
wholly w T ith the Lord (summer), but with the three seasons of 
the year of four months each. 

Not satisfied with 1,000 women,* Solomon went after 
Ashtoreth (the Moon), the goddess of the Zidonians, and did 
evil in the sight of the Lord (summer). He even built a high 
place for Chemosh (the winter Sun) in the hill (winter solstice) 
that is before, or opposite, Jerusalem (summer solstice). At 
these things the Lord got angry (1 Kings xi, 9), and stirred up 
an adversary (Satan) unto Solomon, one Hadad (fierceness= 
winter), an Edomite (a dweller in the winter hemisphere), 
whose wife (the end of the year), the sister of Tahpenes (caput 
seculi = the beginning of the year), bore Genubath (thefts, 
because he steals a little off each of the shortening days). 
Genubath was weaned in Pharaoh's house, at the winter sol- 
stice, whence the days begin to lengthen. Hadad, the adver- 
sary of Solomon, did much mischief (in shortening the days), 
but Pezon (pining away = the last half of winter) bothered 

* The 1,000 women represent Virgo; 7C0 were wives, 300 concubines: the 1,000 being 
divided into thirds as near as round numbers will do it. The 300 concubines denote the 
ten women, or one third of Virgo, which David (summer) shut out of his own house by 
themselves, into the winter hemisphere. "Absalom went in unto them " (see ante). 



356 THE SCIENCE OF THE BLBLE. 

Solomon the rest of his days. Rezon was the son of Eliadah 
(whom God cares for = summer), which tied from Hadadezer 
(Hadad's help = summer), king of Zohah (station). He abhorred 
Israel, and reigned in Syria— the last half of winter (1 Kings 
xi, 25). 

Jeroboam (the people will be many = summer) was the son 
of JSTebat (the seer= spring equinox), an Ephrathite (fruit-pro- 
ducer), from Zereda (cold = winter), i. e., the earth during sum- 
mer was called Jeroboam. Zeruah (the leprous, or white 
woman = Virgo in winter), his mother, was a widow, her hus- 
band having died six months before. " He lifted his hand up 
against the king," because Solomon built millo (fill In ess = win- 
ter, because winter with summer fills out the year, summer is 
always opposite winter), and closed the breaches of the city of 
David — the latter being the Sun during summer. 

Jeroboam, on account of his valor, had charge of the house 
of Joseph, i. e., the earth in summer produced its crops (Jo- 
seph). Leaving Jerusalem (summer solstice), the prophet 
Ahijah (brother Sun), the Shilonite (of the summer solstice), 
found Jeroboam in the way (at the fall equinox, where these 
two always meet) and, seizing the new garment of Jeroboam 
(•" they two were alone in the field "), he rent it (the crop) into 
twelve pieces, one for each month in the year. Ten of the 
twelve pieces he immediately gave back to Jeroboam, saying, 
I will rend the kingdom (the crop) out of the hand of Solomon 
(the year), and will give ten parts of it to thee. Now, counting 
from the fall equinox, where the parties there were, these ten 
months would bring us around to July (Leo), which Saul gave 
to David as the price (100 " foreskins " of the Philistines) for 
Michal (Virgo), his daughter. David, finding Saul's price too 
little, doubled it, as he could not get full possession of his bride 
without. Hence one of these months (Augusts Virgo) was 
given provisionally to Jeroboam, — "for my servant David's 
sake, and for Jerusalem's sake " (xi, 32). The other (July- 
Leo) was reserved for a special purpose ; — as " the city which 
I have chosen me to put my name there " (xi, 36). This was 
Leo, as indicated above, which, astrological ly, was the Sun's 
house. At a future time, " I will take thee, and thou shalt 



SOLOMON. 357 

reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king 
over Israel (the year)." Solomon sought, therefore, to kill 
Jeroboam, but he fled to Shishak (legs = winter), king of Egypt, 
where he tarried until the death of Solomon at the spring 
equinox, where the year (Solomon) ended. 

Shishak is probably a reduplication of shah, the Chaldaic 
for shah, a leg; hence Shishah=legs=the winter hemisphere 
(see the Man in our common almanac). " The Hebrew inter- 
preters, as also Jerome, suppose *!&}$}, Shishah, to stand for 
/D3> bahel, according to the secret or cabalistic mode of writing 
called ethbash, wherein the alphabet is inverted." Thus £?, sh, 
would stand for 2, fy and *], h, for 7, I. (Ileb. Lex., p. 1114). 

Rehoboam. 

1 Kings xii. Rehoboam (family founder = winter) suc- 
ceeded his father, Solomon. He went to Shechem (shoulder = 
the east). Jeroboam (summer), his brother, was still in Egypt, 
whence the people called him. He came and told Rehoboam 
that his father had made their yoke grievous, i. e., had enslaved 
them {1 Sam. viii, 11-18) ; make the yoke he put upon us 
lighter, and we will serve thee (v. 1). Rehoboam, therefore, 
consulted the old men (the past summer months), who advised 
mild measures ; but the young men (the coming winter months), 
when approached by him, counseled severity. So Rehoboam 
returned for answer: " My father chastised you with whips, but 
I will chastise you with scorpions " (the scorpions had power 
to hurt men five months, — Rev. ix, 10), i. e., during winter. 

The poor people, finding they had no portion in David, or 
inheritance in the son of Jesse (for it was winter and not sum- 
mer), ordered : " To your tents, O Israel," i. e., move on to 
the spring equinox, where David (who had long been dead) 
would see "to his own house" (v. 16), i. e., summer would 
come. One month, however, was passed, for Rehoboam reigned 
over the children of Israel in Judah, i. e., over Sagittarius, Cap- 
ricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, which then were coming to the 
eastern horizon. So Rehoboam sent Adoram (lord of altitude), 
but Israel stoned him that he died, i. e., the Sun descended 



358 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

month by month to the winter solstice, when the days ceased 
to shorten. Rehoboam now became frightened and made 
speed to flee to Jerusalem, i. e., the days began to lengthen. 
" So Israel fell away from the house of David (summer solstice) 
unto this day " (winter solstice). 

Jeroboam. 

1 Kings xii, 20. Jeroboam (summer) now comes around 
again, and true to his time, at the spring equinox ; for he built 
Shechem (shoulder^ spring equinox) in Mount Ephraim. 
Thence he went out and built Penuel ( facing-Ram— Aries at 
the fall equinox). Jeroboam now flattered himself that the 
kingdom had returned to the house of David — to himself. 
He also saw that should the people be permitted to sacrifice in 
the house of the Lord (summer solstice, the turning point of 
summer, where he then was,) in Jerusalem, they would kill 
him, i. e., summer would pass away, and they would go again 
to Rehoboam (winter). Wherefore he made two golden calves 
and set one of them up in Beth-el (Taurus rising in spring) 
and the other in Dan (Taurus setting in autumn). He next 
made a house of high-places (winter solstice) and made priests 
of the lowest people, i. e., by discarding the true solstices and 
equinoxes (priests of which the summer solstice is chief) and 
readopting those which had been obsolete thousands of years, 
"he made priests of the lowest of the people." He also fixed 
"the feast of the tabernacles" in the eighth month, on the 
fifteenth day of the month, just one month too late. This was 
all wrong ; but then the " fool returneth to his own folly " 
(Prov. xxvi, 11). In fact, this was Aaron's " molten calf" 
re-enacted, which Moses punished so unmercifully. Jeroboam's 
is now to follow (1 Kings xiii). As Jeroboam stood by his 
altar (summer) there came a man of God (the Earth) out of 
Judah (spring), by the word of the Lord (summer), unto 
Beth-el (spring equinox), i. e., the Sun rose in Aries and not in 
Taurus, as Jeroboam had it. This man of God " cried out 
against Jeroboam's false reckoning and predicted that Josiah 
(the correcting Sun, then upon the equinox,) will offer the 
false priests (cardinal points) of Jeroboam upon it (the altar) ; 



Solomon 359 

that the false altar shall be rent, etc., i. e., the true reckoning 
will prevail. Jeroboam, on hearing this, put forth his hand 
(the latter rain) to arrest "the man of God," but his hand 
" dried up " (the latter rain ended and thus indicated the true 
time), the altar was rent, and Jeroboam was altogether in a 
bad fix. He now begged to have his hand restored. " The 
man of God " then besought the Lord, i. e., the Sun passed 
over to the next rainy season (former rain), and Jeroboam's 
hand was restored. The king was very thankful, and, out of 
gratitude, invited " the man of God " to go home with him 
and refresh himself (begin a new year in Taurus). This the 
man of God could not do, and, of course, declined, saying he 
was charged by the word of the Lord (the true time) : " Eat 
no bread, nor drink water, nor even turn again by the same 
way that thou earnest." So the man of God did not turn back, 
but went on in his circuit until he returned to Beth-el, where the 
year ended. He did not end the year, or come to the spring 
equinox at Beth-zur, or house of the Bull, as Jeroboam desired. 
Thus Jeroboam's project of keeping up the old calendar, like 
that of the Protestants of the last century, seemed frustrated, 
for a time at least. 

However, there dwelt an old prophet (the Sun) in Beth-el, 
who, on learning by his sons (the twelve months) what " the 
man of God " had done, went after him and " found him 
sitting under the oak " = Sun in Aries. On learning his char- 
acter, the old prophet (Jeroboam) said : " Come home with me 
and eat bread " — (it would be harvest time). " The man of 
God " answered as before, but the old prophet would not be 
put off thus. So he said to " the man of God," " I am a 
prophet also as thou art, and the angel of the Lord (Aries) 
said to me : Bring him back (from Aries) with thee into thine 
house" (Taurus). Though the old prophet "lied," he com- 
passed his end, for " the man of God " (Earth) went with him 
and ate "bread and drank water," it being harvest-time and 
near the rainy season. But the Lord told " the man of God," 
by the prophet that brought him back, that because of his 
disobedience his carcass should not come unto the sepulcher of 
his fathers — the true end of the year. 



360 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

The old prophet then saddled his ass (Sun in Cancer) for 
" the prophet whom he had brought back." And when he 
was gone, a lion (Leo) met him by the way and slew him. His 
carcass (the old calendar) which had been so disobedient (i. e., 
hadn't kept the true time) was brought back by the prophet 
" upon the ass " (Cancer, where was the true place of the 
summer solstice) and buried, the new style being readopted. 
So Jeroboam (i. e., the people, or the protestants) failed of 
his project — the restoration of the "old style," the second 
time. So grieved was the old prophet, at his signal failure, 
that he requested at his death to be buried " in the sepulcher 
wherein the man of God is buried" — the end of the year, 
O. S. 

But Jeroboam was obstinate, and turned not from his evil 
way, but " returned and made " (marginal reading) priests, as 
before related, " of the lowest of the people," until the sin 
(error) became so great as to cut off and destroy the house of 
Jeroboam (the old style) altogether, as related in the next 
(fourteenth) chapter. 

1 Kings xiv. Abijah (father-Sun = Summer), the son of 
Jeroboam, now fell sick, i. e., the calendar was confused. Jero- 
boam told his wife (Virgo below the eastern horizon) to " arise," 
i. e., get up above the horizon, and " disguise thyself" (become 
a day constellation), and go to Shiloh (Sun in Virgo), and she 
would find Ahijah (brother-Sun), who would tell her the fate 
of his son Abijah (father-Sun). So she took ten loaves of 
bread (the ten women David shut up by themselves) and went 
on. As she came to Ahijah, who was blind by reason of his 
age (the winter, merged into the summer Sun), and having 
been previously informed by the Lord of her approach, he said : 
" Come in thou wife of Jeroboam ; why feignest thou to be an- 
other?" Accordingly she entered (Sun in Yirgo). Ahijah 
said to her : " Arise and get thee to thine own house (Libra, — 
see Christ. Astrol., p. 104) ; and when thy feet (Virgo sets 
head first, her ' feet ' touching Libra) enter the city, the child 
(summer) shall die" (v. 12). 

So Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah 
(delight = fall equinox), and when she came to the threshold of 



SOLOMON. 06 1 

the door, the child died* (v. 17). Thus was the true time in- 
dicated, and Jeroboam's reign brought to its end. 

Rehoboam. 

Rehoboam (winter) succeeded. This old king again reigned 
with a high hand. In his fifth year (month), Shishak (legs= 
winter), king of Egypt (winter solstice), came up against (oppo- 
site to) Jerusalem (summer solstice) and took away all the 
shields of gold (summer days) Solomon had made, putting- 
brazen ones in their place, and committed them (the gold ones) 
unto the hands of the chief of the guard (spring equinox = 
Ophir, where the cherubim was placed, and the year began). 
Rehoboam then " slept with his fathers." 

Abijam. 

Abijam (father of the sea =Moab= Moses =Aquarius= the 
rainy season, or winter) succeeded to the throne of his father, 
Rehoboam. He is sometimes confounded with Abijah (sum- 
mer, — see Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 5) — a mistake. The characters 
of the two show they were separate personifications. Abijam 
(winter), like his father, did evil before the Lord, and warred 
against Jeroboam (summer). But he soon " slept with his 
fathers," and was followed by 

Asa. 

Asa reigned in Jerusalem (summer solstice), i. e., had his 
home or palace there. At mid-summer, as I have before 
shown, the plague ceased its ravages, and hence the name Asa, 
physician or healer, may have been derived. The word heal, 
it should be remembered, was derived from the Greek fjXtoq, 
helios= the Sun. 

"Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, like 
David, his father." He took away the Sodomites (winter 
months), and removed all the idols (calves) his father had set 
up. He even deposed his own mother Maachah (oppression = 

* Of course the dogs ate him (v. 11): for he died in the city. The dog marked the be- 
ginning of summer, and was the companion of Isis; Isis was the same as Ceres, and 
Ceres the same as Virgo, the setting of whose feet marked the fall equinox, the end of 
summer, which the dog ate up just then. The winter months were given to the Swan, the 
Eagle and the Vulture. 



362 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Yirgo in the lower hemisphere), " because she made an idol in 
a grove " (made a miphlezeth la-asherah, i. e., showed a desire 
for sexual congress, as she does every spring, at the very time 
when, it is said, the Yirgin Mary conceived. Hence it has 
been supposed by some, and with a good degree of probability, 
that the spring equinox {asherah) was denoted by a pillar, or 
image, or idol, whose shape resembled that of the phallus, or 
membrum virile. Asherah is a Hebrew feminine noun, and 
hence some have supposed (Dr. In man, Anc. Faiths, vol. i, 
p. 307) it had reference to the "female organ," and "the 
counterpart of Asher," or the male organ. The "Annunciation 
of the Yirgin Mary " certainly denotes that a consummation 
was thought to have been had about this time — the 25th of 
March. 

Whatever Maachah's idol was, Asa, it is said, destroyed and 
burnt it by the brook Kidron (obscurity, or darkness), i. e.. 
Yirgo then went below the horizon, or set as the Sun rose. 

Though Asa removed the Sodomites, destroyed his mother's 
idol, and dedicated the silver and gold (the summer days) unto 
the house of the Lord (summer), he did not remove " the high 
places " (cardinal points) like his father Jeroboam. And when 
war came on between him and Baasha (between summer and 
winter, as at the fall equinox), he was careful to secure the 
" silver and gold," by confiding them to the custody of Ben- 
hadad (son-of-h'erceness, or winter = spring), the son of Tabri- 
mon (the good pomegranate* =Yenus= spring), the son of 
Hezion (vision — the East was always the horoscope), king of 
Syria (spring), who dwelt at Damascus (the east=spring), i. e., 
the summer days were, in imagination, committed to the fol- 
lowing spring, an agent entirely trustworthy, and would 
certainly return them. 

Asa now, at the fall equinox, reminded Ben-hadad (spring) 
that he had a league with him as well as he with Baasha, and 
conjured him to break with the latter. This Ben-hadad con- 

* What a name for a man or woman! But then what of it? Why this — the pome- 
granate was the well-known symbol of Venus, whose rites were celebrated in spring, 
when, it was supposed, the tender passion was awakened. One of its names, "Rhoia," 
was the same as Rhea, the mother of Romulus and Remus (Bryant's Anal., etc., vol. iii, 
p. 238). Rhea was the same with Ceres, Venus. Isis, the Virgin Mary, etc. (see Faber's 
C'abiri, passim). 



solomox. 363 

sented to, and instantly sent his forces against Baasha, and 
smote Ijon (a ruin), Abel-beth-maachah (iield-of-oppression = 
winter), and Dan (Scorpio), and Cinneroth (the Lyre which 
rises with Scorpio). When Baasha (winter) heard of his losses, 
he left off building Ramah (summer solstice), i. e., winter 
ended at the spring equinox, and dwelt in Tirzah (summer). 
Ben-hadad having thus returned the " silver and gold " (sum- 
mer), Asa went on and built Geba (hill) of Benjamin and 
Mizpah ( watch-tower = the east), the equinoxes, which, of 
course, included summer. Asa, now grown old, became lame 
in his feet, and, at the end of summer, " slept with his fathers" 
{1 Kings xv, 24). 

Jehoshaphat I 

(Judging-Sun=Sun on the equinox) now reigned in his fa- 
ther's stead. His reign, however, was exceedingly short (while 
the Sun was crossing the equinoctial line), as we are told in 
the 25th verse that 

Eadab 

(the liberal one= Autumn) "reigned" (see marginal read- 
ing, which is the true one) over Israel two years (the months 
September and October). " He did evil in the sight of the 
Lord," i. e., the days grew shorter all the while, and thus he 
caused Israel to sin — the Sun being below the equinoctial line, 
or path of righteousness. 

Baasha. 

Baasha (the evil one= winter) now conspired against Nadab 
and smote him at Gibbethon ; " for Nadab and all Israel laid 
siege to Gibbethon," a city of Dan, which nevertheless be- 
longed to the Philistines, or winter months. In the third year 
(month) of Asa (summer) Baasha slew Eadab and reigned in 
his stead. He began his reign in Tirzah (summer), and " did 
evil in the sight of the Lord ;" for he smote all the house of 
Jeroboam (the summer months, including October) and left 
not anything that breathed (i. e., he left no part of summer), 
according as Ahijah, the Shilonite, had predicted. At length, 
having committed all the depredations he was capable of, Jehu 



364 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

(the Sun is he=Sun of summer), by the word of the Lord r 
came up against Baasha. Jehu told Baasha he was a wicked 
old scamp, and he would put an end to him. Besides, he told 
him that the dogs should eat all that died in the city, and the 
fowls should eat all those that died in the field (zodiac). After 
this Baasha "slept with his fathers" and was buried in Tir- 
zah at the end of summer. 

Elah. 

Elah, the Ram, or Oak, or Pine-tree, or the spring equinox, 
followed Baasha, or winter, his father. He reigned in Tirzah T 
but was soon slain by his captain, Zimri (songster = summer), 
who found him drunk in the house of Arza= Earth. 

Zimri. 

Zimri then, of course, reigned in Elah's stead. Like David 
he slew all the house of Baasha, leaving " not one that pisseth 
against the wall," i. e., he slew all the males (the winter 
months). Thus did Zimri according to the word of the Lord 
by his prophet Jehu (v. 12). Zimri had reigned but seven 
days (months) in Tirzah, i. e., during summer, when the peo- 
ple found he had slain their king. So they made 

Omri 

their next king. (The root of the word Omri is the same with 
that of Gomorrah, and means, according to Gesenius, " to 
overwhelm with water.") Thus Omri was the rainy season, or 
winter. He at once besieged Tirzah (summer), and being the 
stronger, took the city. Zimri, unwilling to live in disgrace, 
set fire to his house and perished in the flames — summer 
ended ; 1 Kings xvi, 18. 

The people of Israel, i. e., the four months, July, August, 
September and October, " were now divided into two parts ;" 
half, i. e., July and August, followed Tibni (the equinoctial 
line), and half, September and October, followed Omri. Tibni 
was the son of Ginath, or the garden = summer. Tibni died, 
and Omri (Winter) reigned. "But Omri wrought evil in the 
eyes of the Lord," and did worse than all that were before him 
(v. 25). " He slept with his fathers" (v. 28). 



Solomon 365 



Ahab. 



Omri was succeeded by his own son Ahab (brother-to-the 
father=Omri = winter), in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, he 
being still alive, king of Judah (spring). He reigned over Israel 
in Samaria (winter), and was a very naughty king — Ahab was 
— and very famous because of his naughtiness. He was very 
like Pharaoh, only more so, for he was the worst winter the 
people had ever seen or known. He married Jezebel (the 
non-cohabited— Yu 'go in winter), the daughter of Ethbaal (with- 
the-Sun = Sun in winter), king of the Zidonians (hunting- 
months = winter, and went and served Baal (the winter Sun). 
All this looked ominous ; and showed that Ahab was preparing 
to do his best against the Lord-God, or summer. And though 
Hi el (the live Earn), of Beth-el, did in his days build Jericho 
(the lunar month), laying its foundation in Abiram (winter 
solstice), and setting up the gates thereof in Segub (hight= 
the meridian), his first-born (being the point where the days 
begin to lengthen), it made no difference. Ahab would have 
his own way : he reared up an altar in Samaria ( u watch-post" 
so called from the winter solstice), and thus oppressed the peo- 
ple with cold weather. After this he made a grove, asherah * 
=the emblem of fecundity = spring equinox), and did more to 
provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger (to bring warm 
weather) than all the kings of Israel that were before him. 

Thus did Ahab bear sway with a high hand, defy the Loud, 
and wage war against Heaven (winter against summer). But it 
happened, unfortunately for Ahab, just at this time, that there 
was a famine in Samaria (in winter, as there always is), — 
1 Kings xviii, 2. Ahab now called upon Obadiah (Sun's servant 
=Earth), the governor of his house, " to find grass to save the 
horses and mules alive " (v. 5). The two then parted, Ahab 
(the Sun) going in one direction, and Obadiah (the Earth) in 

* The asherah, or " female organ," was of olden time carved over the doors of churches. 
By the Irish they were called Shelah-na-gig . Several of them have been found in the 
county of Tipperary. Ireland, and are figured and described in R. Payne Knight's "Wor- 
ship of the Generative Powers," pp. 132-134. Doubtless in the primitive ages of simplicity 
this organ was esteemed, or looked upon as the symbol of the Creation, and hence of 
spring, when the Creation began. 



366 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

another. The latter soon met Elijah (Ram-Sun), who told him 
to go back and tell Ahab of his whereabouts. This Obadiah 
feared to do, as he believed Ahab would slay him, and his 
fears were not groundless. The upshot, however, was no grass 
for " the beasts," and Ahab went to his house heavy and dis- 
pleased (1 Kings xx, 43). In his great strait, what was Ahab 
to do ? Just what has always been done — if he couldn't pro- 
cure food in one way he must in another ; if not by purchase, 
then by theft or robbery. 

1 Kings xxi. Now it happened, and luckily enough, too, for 
Ahab, that he had a neighbor, Naboth (fruits = summer), whose 
vineyard (the crops of summer) he, in his necessity, coveted — 
winter must live off of summer. This Ahab asked Naboth to 
give him, or, if he liked, he would buy it for money (v. 2). 
Naboth refused to do either. At this Ahab was much dis- 
pleased ; but Jezebel suggested a plan to get it anyhow. By 
her advice a fast (in memory of Moses' broken tables of the 
law) was proclaimed. This Naboth ridiculed, and treated 
with contempt — summer laughed at winter. Of course he 
was arrested, when two men (the two halves of winter), sons 
of Belial, good-for-nothing fellows, like many witnesses now-a- 
days, appearing against him, poor Naboth was convicted of 
blasphemy, carried out and stoned to death (summer ended). 
Ahab, on learning by his wife (Virgo at the fall equinox) that 
Naboth was dead, " rose up to go down" (v. 16) to take pos- 
session of his vineyard (the summer crop), which Naboth no 
longer needed, but Ahab did. 

Of course, this act of Ahab, though done in the way of 
self-preservation, created a great sensation. Such is generally 
the case. Accordingly, all was now uproar and confusion. 
Elijah the Tishbite (the captive=Sun in winter) was directed 
by the Lord to face him, and declare to him what he had done, 
and what would, in the end, become of him. It must be 
remarked that Elijah didn't accuse Ahab of the murder 
directly, but asked, " Hast thou killed and also taken posses- 
sion?" (v. 19). There was a doubt, and the accused must 
have the benefit of it. And the sentence, though pronounced, 
was deferred : " I will not bring the evil in his days, i. e., dur- 



SOLOMON". 367 

ing the winter " (v. 29). The Lord would spare him to the end 
of his natural life. Not but that Ahab had behaved very 
naughtily, but he had ''humbled himself before the Lokd" 
(summer solstice), had got down as low as he could get (winter 
solstice), and would thenceforth, because he could not get 
lower, be likely to mend his ways. Nevertheless, Ahab trem- 
bled somewhat as he faced his old enemy, Elijah the prophet 
(Sun at the spring equinox), who told him of the evils he 
would bring upon him: "I will take away thy posterity (will 
here end the winter annually), and will cut off from Ahab, 
him that pisseth against the wall ;" I will vacate thy house, 
and make dog's meat of thy wife : Yes, said the vindictive 
prophet, " the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel 
(spring equinox, Jezreel =the Ram will sow = seed-time — the 
wall of Jezreel being the equinoctial line). "And him that 
dieth in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat " (v. 24). Let's 
see if all this jargon may not be explained rationally. The 
attribute " pissing against the wall" is characteristic of the 
dog, which was the inseparable companion of Isis or Virgo. 
Now the constellation Canis major setting heliacally with 
Taurus, denoted the Sun's entrance into the constellation. 
Hence the dog had his seat in Taurus, and was so represented 
on the Mithraic monuments, as may be seen in the wood-cut 
on page 354. And hence, the dogs were feigned to eat Jez- 
ebel or Virgo, as she died in the city, or in passing from the 
light into the dark hemisphere. The days of the past year, 
which died in the field (zodiac), the fowls of the air devoured, 
i. e., they disappeared successively. The dog (Canis major), 
having his seat in the upper hemisphere, was, of course, cut off 
from Ahab, or winter. 

Thus was Ahab threatened. Let us see the event. Three 
years (months) passed without war between Israel (summer 
constellations) and Syria (high-place = spring equinox). At 
the end of the third year (month), Jehoshaphat (judging-Sun 
^equinoctial Sun) met the king, Ahab, at the spring equinox, 
of course, and thus were the northern and southern constella- 
tions divided by the equator, the Sun being about to engage 
with the former. Ahab (now at the equinox) saw Ramoth- 



:}68 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

gilead (heights-of-the-witn ess-heap = summer) with its rich har- 
vests lying before him. and sought to capture it. Being 
forewarned by Elijah (equinoctial Sun), he w T ould proceed 
cautiously. He first approached Jehoshaphat (Sun on the 
equinox), to learn if he would go with him to battle. Jehosh- 
aphat answered : "lam as thou art, my people as thy people, 
my horses as thy horses." Thus were they all identical, the 
time being the beginning of spring. Nevertheless, Jehoshaphat 
told Ahab " to inquire of the Lord to-day " — the equinoctial 
day. So Ahab got together 400 (a multiple of 10) prophets 
of Baal (the 40 days of Lent), who told him to "go up, for the 
Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king (1 Kings xxii, 
6). Jehoshaphat was not quite satisfied, but wished Micaiah 
(who is like the Sun = the Moon), the son of Imlah (the filler 
=the Earth) to be consulted. Ahab was averse to this, as he 
hated Micaiah, " for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, 
but evil ;" i. e., the Moon was then in its wane, and its next 
conjunction with the Sun would tell of Ahab's death ; as the 
vear was then reckoned to begin from the new moon at the 
spring equinox. Jehoshaphat insisted ; so he and the king put 
on their robes and set in " a void place " (between winter and 
summer, " and all the prophets " (Micaiah among them) said to 
Ahab, "Go up and prosper." But they all lied, and Ahab 
twitted Micaiah, saying, " How many times shall I adjure thee 
that thou tell me nothing but the/truth?" Micaiah in answer, 
said : " I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep with- 
out a shepherd ; and the Lord said, these have no master," — 
the future summer had no Sun. (1 Kings xxii, 17). 

Aha ! exclaimed Ahab to Jehoshaphat, didn't I tell thee he 
would prophesy evil concerning me ? Thus things were seem- 
ingly at a stand-still ; when Jehoshaphat, recurring to the past 
as an earnest of the future, ejaculated : " I saw the Lord sitting 
on his throne, and all the host of heaven (the seven summer 
months) standing by him on his right hand and on his left," 
i. e., during the past summer, he had seen the Sun at his solstice 
(St. John the Baptist) with the three preceding months on his 
left hand, and the three succeeding ones on his right hand, the 
middle month, his throne, constituting the key-stone — the 



SOLOMON. 869 

whole being the royal-arch of the freemasons (see frontispiece 
in Fellows* Freemasonry). 

The Lord (v. 20), realizing the criticalness of his situation 
(the Sun's heat being feeble in early spring), prays for help 
against Ahab, asking, " who shall persuade Ahab, that he may 
go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead ? " Instantly " the wind " 
(ha-ruah), i. e., the spring monsoon, emphatically '" the wind" 
or "the spirit" came forth, and said, I will persuade him ; yes, 
I will be " a lying," i. e., an adverse, or opposite, wind in the 
mouth of all his prophets. The Lord was reassured at once : 
" Go forth and do so," said he (v. 22). Now Ahab had four 
hundred prophets (the forty lent days), who were as fully bent 
upon the destruction of their king as our modern prophets are 
upon the ruination of their supporters — the laboring classes; 
and though informed of the Lord's intentions, and made fully 
aware of the base treason of his prophets, the devoted king- 
prepared for battle. 

Zedekiah (equinoctial Sun), the son of Chenaanah (she that 
is setting = Virgo), struck the first blow, hitting Ahab's worst 
enem}^, Micaiah, on his cheek (new moon), and asked him 
which way the spirit of the Lord (spring monsoon) went to 
speak unto him. Micaiah thought he would find out as he 
went from chamber to chamber (month to month) to hide him- 
self (in winter, the Sun's hiding-place). The impertinent Mi- 
caiah was ordered back to Anion (Aries) and to Joash (the 
king's son, or the Sun in Aries) to be put in prison until 
Ahab's return in peace, i. e., the new moon was ordered to its 
full. Macaiah remarked to Ahab, that if he returned in peace, 
" the Lord hath not spoken by me." 

Everything being in readiness for the coming campaign (Sun 
at the spring equinox), Ahab and Jehoshaphat went up to (not 
into) Ramoth-gilead, the former disguising himself like his 
predecessor, Saul, and thus becoming another man. The latter 
went in his robes (v. 30). The king of Syria (spring), having 
ordered his men to fight with none but the king of Israel, Je- 
hoshaphat was in danger of being taken for Ahab. Such was 
the case, but Jehoshaphat " cried out " (the confusion of Babel), 
and so his life was spared. A certain man (Aries, the archer), 
24 



370 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

however, drew his bow at a venture and smote Ahab " between 
the joints of the harness" (equinoctial Sun), thus giving him 
a mortal wound. The battle ascended (marginal reading), not- 
withstanding, and the king was stayed up in his chariot until 
even, when he died. His blood ran from the wound into the 
body of the chariot. Proclamation being made, everybody 
went to his own city, i. e., the two sets of constellations were 
each on its proper side of the ecpator. Ahab was buried in 
Samaria ; his clothes were washed in the pool of Samaria (the 
latter rain), and the dogs licked up his blood, i. e., summer fol- 
lowed (1 Kings xxii, 38). 



BEN- 



HADAD. 



1 Kings xix. Ben-hadad (son-of-the-fierce-one = spring) 
appears to be the same as Hazael (the Ram seas). He was 
anointed king over Syria (spring), being the first of the three 
(seasons) which the Lord ordered Elijah to appoint to their 
respective places in the zodiac (v. 15). This king gathered his 
hosts (the six summer constellations), and sent messengers to 
Ahab, king of Israel, into the city (of Ahab=the six winter 
constellations), saying: " Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy 
wives and thy children are mine " (1 Kings xx, 3). Thou 
shalt deliver all to me (v. 5). To this Ahab consented (v. 4). 
But when Ben-hadad threatened to take all, Ahab demurred. 
" The king of Israel," thus threatened, called his elders together, 
and said: "Mark, I pray you, how this Ben-hadad seeketh 
mischief." After due consideration, the elders of Ahab, who, 
as we have seen, was, it is said, a very naughty fellow, advised 
him not to comply. To this Ahab agreed, and sent w r ord to 
Ben-hadad accordingly. The Syrian king ripped out an oath 
— swore bj^ the Gods, and said : " The dust of Samaria (winter) 
will be enough for him." To which Ahab replied : Don't be 
too crank ; my time hasn't yet come (v. 11). 

At this, Ben-hadad marshaled his hosts in battle array 
against the city (of Ahab), which was made up of the six win- 
ter constellations, as above stated. Among these are Libra and 
Scorpio, called " Israel in Samaria." Over these Ahab ruled. 



SOLOMON. 371 

The children of Israel, it is said, were pitched before the Syrians, 
in Aphek (spring equinox), " like two little flocks of kids " 
(1 Kings xx, 27). Libra and Scorpio form one flock, and Leo 
and Yirgo, the other. At the spring equinox, these four con- 
stellations are exactly opposite that point, two being above, 
and two below, the horizon (see the zodiac). 

The Lord, who was now on the side of Ahab, told him to 
go ahead, and he would deliver Ben-hadad into his hand (v. 28). 
Accordingly Ahab got ready, and, going out at noon (summer 
solstice), joined battle with the Syrians on the seventh day 
(month) — (v. 29). About this time, Ben-hadad " was drinking 
himself drunk, in the pavilions " (v. 16). It was the season of 
winemaking. On being notified of his enemy's approach, and 
being in excellent humor, of course, from the exhilarating 
effects of his wine, he gave orders to take him alive. However, 
the Israelites came on, and slew, of the Syrians, " every one 
his man " (v. 20), i. e., the six summer months (Syria*) set, or 
passed away, and were followed by the six months of winter 
(Israel). The Syrians fled, and Ben-hadad, their king, escaped 
on a horse. Thus were the Syrians defeated in their first 
battle with Ahab, king of Israel. 

The prophet now warned Ahab : " Mark," said he, " what 
thou doest, for at the end of the year (at the spring equinox) 
Ben-hadad will come up against thee " (v. 22), i. e., spring will 
again return. The Syrians attributed their defeat to the fact 
that the Gods of the Israelites were Gods of the hills, i. e., the 
six winter constellations were ascending in the east to the 
upper hemisphere; the contrary being the case with the six 
summer constellations. They would, therefore, fight them in 
the plain next time, i. e., their positions would then be re- 
versed. So Ben-hadad and his army went up to Aphek (spring 
equinox — the hills). The Israelites again pitched before them 
like two little flocks of kids, half above, and half below, the 
horizon. But the Syrians filled the country, i. e., the balance 
of the lower hemisphere. The position was an unfavorable one 

* The reader will perceive that this is not strictly correct. The six summer months 
took in the four months of Syria, or spring, and the first two of Israel, or summer. The 
six winter months embraced the last two of Israel, or summer, and the four months of 
Samaria, or winter. 



372 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

for the Israelites — so thought Ben-hadad, but the Lord, 
offended because Ben-hadad thought he was not the God of 
the valleys, as of the hills, promised to deliver the Syrians 
into the hands of Ahab again. " Ye shall know," said he, 
" that I am the Lord " (v. 28). 

"And they pitched one over against the other seven days " 
(months), i. e., six constellations marched opposite the other 
six, for seven months. On the seventh day (month), the 
battle was joined as before (i. e., the Sun entered Libra, when 
Aries sets), and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians 
100,000, or any other number yon please, in one day (month), 
i. e., during the time Aries was setting and Libra rising. The 
rest of the Syrians fled to Aphek, as before, where the balance 
(27,000) of them were killed under a wall that fell upon them, 
i. e., they came to the tall equinox, or the end of the civil year. 
Ben-hadad, however, fled from chamber to chamber — from 
month to month — into an inner chamber = night hemisphere. 
His servants put on sackcloth, the emblem of sorrow and win- 
ter, went and applied to the king of Israel to spare Ben-hadad's 
life. "Thy servant," said they, "saith, I pray thee let me 
live," " What," exclaimed Ahab, who, after all that was said 
against him, was an excellent man, "Is he yet alive? he is my 
brother; go ye, bring him." The two kings met, and Ben- 
hadad, on promising to restore "the cities which my father 
took from thy father," — a general covenant being agreed upon 
+— " went his way." Doubtless both the parties faithfully kept 
their " covenant." 

Jehu. 

Jehu (the Sun is he) was the son of N"imshi, the latter being 
merely a form of the Hebrew for Moses. Jehu was, therefore, 
the same as Aaron. He was anointed " to be king over Israel," 
by Elijah (1 Kings xix, 16). Elisha, also, did the same thing, 
by proxy (2 Kings ix, 6) ; so he was doubly a king, and this 
may account, in part, for his remarkably eccentric career. 

He was a harum-scarum kind of king, and very like the 
Phaeton of Heathen mythology ; for " he driveth furiously." 
On his accession to the throne the people were much surprised, 



Solomon. :373 

and great confusion followed; every one hiding his clothes, 
etc., " saying, Jehu is king." The clothes, however, were laid 
by for winter ! Jehu at once conspired against Joram (high- 
Sun), who had kept Eamoth-gilead (heights-of-the-witness-heap), 
and was languishing there from wounds received in his fight 
with the Syrians. Jehu mounted his chariot and rode to Jez- 
reel (the eastern equinox). Here two watchmen accosted him 
in turn, saying : " Is it peace? " (i. e., is it mid-summer?) Why, 
what have you to do with peace? demanded Jehu. Get ye 
behind me. He went on, and the report of the watchmen was : 
" He driveth furiously." 

So Joram (Sun in Cancer), the fleeing king of Israel, and 
Ahaziah (spring Sun), king of Judah, went out each in his 
chariot against Jehu, whom they met in the field of Eaboth 
(fruits) the Jezreelite (son of the sowing^the crop), i. e., Aries 
got opposite the Sun in September, when fruits are ripe. 
Here Joram again accosted Jehu: "Is it peace?" Jehu 
answered : " What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy 
mother, Jezebel (the non-cohabited, or unmarried), and her 
witchcrafts are so many?" Jezebel, or the non-cohabited, is 
Virgo at the fall equinox, where, of course, as she is going 
among strange gods — winter gods — gods of the valleys (1 
Kings xx, 28), she must be guilty of everything charged to 
her ; for wasn't winter, the work of her witchcraft, coming on ? 
How, then, could there be peace? Joram, turning to Ahaziah, 
exclaimed, " O Ahaziah, here is treachery," and fled. Then 
Jehu drew a bow (the arch of the hemisphere), and shot Jehoram 
through the heart, and he sank down in his chariot (Sun comes 
to fall equinox, and Aries sets). Bidkar (divider = equator) 
buried him in Naboth's field. 

When Ahaziah (Sun in Aries), king of Judah, saw this, he 
fled in the way to the garden house (Eden == summer). Jehu 
went after him full tilt, hallooing — smite him, smite him! 
Ahaziah, hunted down like a wild beast, was wounded at Gur 
(whelp or wolf) near Ibleam (the fall equinox), and died at 
Megiddo (winter solstice). His remains were afterward buried 
in Jerusalem. From Jerusalem, Jehu went to Jezreel (seed- 
time=fall equinox). Here flnding his company divided by 



374 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the equator, he looked up and asked: "Who is on my side?" 
As he looked up, he saw " two or three eunuchs " looking at 
him (2 kings ix, 32). The words here translated eunuchs, 
means rooted out, or extirpated, and probably refers to the 
"two or three" constellations, Leo, Virgo, Libra, then just 
above the western horizon at sunrise. It was the season, too, 
let it be remembered, when poor old father ]SToah was made 
impotent. Jezebel, hearing of it, went and painted her face, 
and tired her head, and looked out of a window, i. e., she put 
her head, which rose first, into daylight — she was very sorry. 

Jehu, seeing his unlucky position (the Virgin being in the 
upper or day hemisphere in winter), cried : " Throw her down, 
throw her down ! " and they threw her down. Her blood (the 
aurora of spring) stained the wall (horizon). Jehu, the naughty 
Jehu, " trode her under foot," after which he gave orders for 
the burial of " this cursed woman," for she was a king's daughter. 
But when his servants went to her, behold ! Oh, horrible, they 
found nothing but her skull, her feet and her hands ! The 
dogs had eaten the flesh of her body ! i. e., her head and hands 
were below the reddened horizon, her chest in it, and her feet 
above it. In this position, she was the Cinderella of the glass 
slipper, of fairy tale. 

Jehu, however, was justified for his inhuman (and it was 
certainly inhuman) act by the word of the Lord by his servant 
Elijah the Tishbite. And so thousands of criminals are at 
present justifying their infernal deeds by what they deem the 
word of the Lord, through our clergy. (See the Newspapers.) 

The next act of Jehu was of unparalleled barbarity. He 
dispatched letters to Samaria (the four winter months) telling 
the people to place their best man upon the throne, and fight 
for their master's house (x, 1-3). Knowing the desperate char- 
acter of king Jehu, the silly Samaritans yielded at once, saying 
to Jehu : " Do thou that which is good in thine eyes." At this 
Jehu ordered them to decapitate Ahab's seventy sons, and send 
them to him at Jezreel. Heartless and cruel as this order may 
seem, the pusillanimous Samaritans complied without a mur- 
mur ; and the heads of Ahab's seventy sons were delivered, in 
two heaps, to Jehu at Jezreel. Literally, this tale cannot be 



solomox. 375 

true ; the composer of it must have been a bloodthirsty villain. 
No people on earth, however degraded, have ever been known 
to comply, without a struggle, with such a brutal order, and I 
doubt even then. The story cannot, I repeat, be true ; it is 
only an astronomical myth. But how solve it? Thus: 
When the Sun comes to the spring equinox (Jezreel), the Jew- 
ish year ends, i. e., is slain, and with it, of course, the 70 sons 
of Ahab, the Sanhedrim or 70 (this number being used in- 
stead of 72, the true number) semi-decans of the year of 360 
days. Their heads were delivered in two heaps=the two halves 
of the year, before Jehu (the summer Sun) in Jezreel = the 
spring seed-time (x, 7). 

Besides Ahab's 70 sons, the bloody Jehu " slew all that re- 
mained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, 
and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left no more remain- 
ing." This killing, of course, referred to the past year. His 
slaying went on, for we soon find him slaying "all that re- 
mained to Ahab in Samaria (v. 17). 

On his way to Samaria (winter), Jehu met at the shearing- 
house, the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, i. e., the spring 
constellations were setting, while the summer constellations 
were rising, as may be seen on the zodiac. " The shearing- 
house " seems to me to be a bad rendering of the Hebrew. 
Commentators, however, are far from agreeing as to the mean- 
ing of this passage. I think it refers to the time of the year 
when Noah and his family entered the ark — the 17th of Oc- 
tober. I know this is an uncommon idea, but think I am 
right. If so, then I may translate : " the house prepared 
against evil." But see farther on, Jehu (the four summer con- 
stellations) asked Judah's brethren (the spring constellations) 
where they were going. To salute the children of the king 
(Sun in Leo) and queen (Sun in Virgo) of Israel, said they. 
" Take them alive " (bring them into the upper hemisphere), 
said Jehu. This was done ; but the children of Judah slew 
them soon after at " the pit of the shearing house." This 
proves my translation of the " shearing house " correct ; for 
as the last of the four summer constellations (Scorpio) comes 
down to the western horizon, the Sun enters Taurus, at the 



376 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

eastern, where Xoah and his family left the ark on the 27th 
day of the second month (Gen. vii, 14). 

When Jehu again departed (the time being spring), he soon 
met Jehonadab (driving-Sun = Uriah). Him he took up into 
his chariot with him, saying, come, see my zeal (heat) for the 
Lord (summer), and, coming again to Samaria (winter), he slew 
all that remained to Ahab in Samaria, Jehu then gathered 
all the people together (at the end of the year) and said unto 
them: "Ahab served Baal (the winter Sun) a little, but Jehu 
shall serve him much " (v. 18). 

A last grand rally was now prepared against Baal under 
the -pretense of serving him. " He (Jehu) did it in subtlety," 
says the text, i. e., " over the left." Having called together all 
Baal's prophets, servants, priests, etc., he proclaimed a solemn 
assembly (passover=the spring equinox), to which all the 
worshipers of Baal came, even to the last man of them. 
" The house of Baal was full from one end to the other." He 
next appointed fourscore men (the four spring constellations) 
without to see that none escaped. If any escape, "he that 
letteth him go," said he, " his life shall be for the life of him." 
Jehu now gave the word, and the guard, and the captains (of 
Jehu) smote them and cast them out. The Israelites then 
went to the city of the house of Baal (Sagittarius, the first of 
the four winter months,) and brought forth the images of Baal 
(the four winter constellations) and burnt them, i. e., the Sun 
passed successively through them. Thus Jehu destroyed all 
Baal out of the house of Israel, and it was spring again. "Who 
does not see that this last act of Jehu was the last also of 
Samson ? The two were the same, the solstitial Sun. 

But Jehu didn't remove Jeroboam's golden calves. These 
were left standing, and the Lord, in consideration of his 
services, no doubt, overlooked this neglect of Jehu (v. 29). 

In those days (at the fall equinox) the Lord began " to cut 
off the ends" of Israel (see marginal reading). That is, at this 
time two of Israel's constellations are above the western hori- 
zon at Sun-rise and two (Libra and Scorpio) below it. "These 
are the ends of Israel." Hazael (Aries sees) smote them in all 
the coasts of Israel, i. e., as the Ram sets, summer ends. Jehu 
now " slept with his fathers." 



CHAPTEH XIX. 
ELIJAH — ELISHA. 

" "TpLIJAH the Tishbite has been well called "the grandest 
J— J a nd the most romantic character that Israel ever pro- 
duced. He meets ns with a suddenness as startling as the first 
appearance of John the Baptist. There is not a word of his 
parentage ; and of his birth-place we only know that it was in 
the land of Gilead east of Jordan " {Smith's Old Test. Hist., 
p. 520). 

It is true, as the gentleman above quoted well observes, 
that the language in which Elijah's career is portrayed is ro- 
mantic, wild, extravagant, fictitious, fanciful and all that — such 
as we are not accustomed to in our day, yet a little learning 
and a little patience may help us to a better acquaintance with 
the " parentage and locality " of this famous prophet. 

Elijah, correctly spelled without the Masoretic points, a 
most impertinent imposition (see Sir W. Drummond's Edipus 
Judaicus, p. 191), becomes El-jah (literally Ram-Sun), the same 
word precisely into which the Elohim of the first verse of 
Genesis resolves itself under a scientific analysis, as has been 
seen in the article Creation. The epithet Tisfibite is derived 
from the root shahah, to lead captive. From this we learn 
that Elijah the Tishbite personifies the Sun and Aries during 
winter. This the history of his short but wonderful career 
will abundantly confirm. He first put in his appearance at 
the beginning of the reign of the naughty Ahab, or at the be- 
ginning of winter. The first act of his life was to warn his 
sovereign that there would be neither " dew nor rain " except 
by his word ; referring to the time which was near, when Mo- 
ses (Aquarius) would strike the rock, or come to his meridian, 
as he always does when the Sun enters Scorpio, and the 



378 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" former rain " would begin. Thus, having made his first pre- 
diction, the Lord told him to go and hide himself by the brook 
Cherith (division = the equator), which is upon the face of 
Jordan (the Sun's ecliptic), i. e., the Sun was to pass into the 
southern hemisphere at the intersection of these two great cir- 
cles. There, said the Lord, thou shalt drink of the brook (the 
former rain), "and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee 
there." Elijah, trusting in the Lord, went on, and these 
"black devils" did feed him. But how? that's the question. 
A little knowledge coupled with a modicum of thought will 
explain this hitherto unexplained mystery. The raven, the 
croaking raven, is a black bird — a bird ominous of evil, of 
winter. Hence, he was made the emblem of the dark days of 
winter, and placed just below the equinoctial line near the fall 
equinox where winter begins (see constellation Corvus on the 
celestial globe). Hence, it appears, the semi-savages of those 
days lived during the winter — like the same class of people 
now-a-days — on what they could get. 

Elijah's second miracle was a reproduction of the first in a 
different form, and had, like the first, reference to the subsist- 
ence of the people during winter. It is as follows : After the 
brook dried up, i. e., after the Sun had crossed the equinoctial 
line, the Lord told Elijah to go to Zarephath (the place where 
gold is smelted=the East, which belongeth to Zidon (the hunt- 
ing month=November), i. e., to that part of the horizon where 
the Sun rises in November. Elijah went and met a widow 
woman at the gate of the city (Virgo in quartile aspect with 
the Sun). She was gathering sticks* (on the Sabbath, i. e., in 
winter for winter's use). This woman had a barrel of meal 
and a cruse of oil, the provisions laid by for winter, and the 
products of the previous summer. Out of these she was about 
to prepare food for herself and son. Elijah craved a share. 
The poor woman, assured by him that she had enough to last, 
gave him of her store. So they all ate, and the meal and oil 
failed not, but lasted until the new crop came in. 

* In ancient days, as now among savages, the duty of procuring fuel and preparing 
food devolved upon the housewife. By this we learn why this woman was spared, while 
the man in Num. xv was stoned to death for doing the same thing. In the woman it was 
a duty: in the man, a crime. 



ELIJAH — EL1SHA. 379 

Elijah's third miracle was still more wonderful. The poor 
woman's son (the summer) "fell sick; and his sickness was 
so sore that there was no breath left in him" (1 Kings xvii, 17). 
In the distracted state of her mind, brought on by her suffer- 
ing and grief, she was near accusing Elijah of the murder 
of her child. Elijah, to whose lofty character was added 
the possession of a compassionate spirit, said : " Give me thy 
thy son." So he took the apparently lifeless child from his 
mother's bosom (Sun leaves Yirgo and summer ends) and car- 
ried him up into a loft (the upper hemisphere), where he abode 
(winter solstice, where the Savior was born), and laid him 
upon his own bed. Elijah now took up the refrain of the 
poor mother, and said : " O Lord my God, hast thou also 
brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying 
her son?" Having uttered these words, he stretched himself 
upon the child three times (three months from the winter sol- 
stice to the spring equinox), and cried unto the Lord and said, 
" O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into 
him again." The Lord heard Elijah ; the child's soul got into 
him again and he revived, i. e., spring returned. Elijah then 
gave the child back to his mother, saying, see, thy son liveth ! 
This miracle we all witness every spring, and a grand miracle 
it is too, as all must confess. 

His fourth miracle was equally, if not more wonderful. It 
was founded on autumn and spring, or better, perhaps, winter 
and summer. Ahab (winter) having gathered his prophets at 
Mount Carmel (grape mountain=the vintage), where Elijah 
met him as usual. " How long," said he, " halt ye between 
two opinions?" i. e., how long before you can tell winter from 
summer? The poor people were dumbfounded! "They an- 
swered him not a word." "But," continued he, "I only, re- 
main of the prophets of the Lord (Elijah had forgotten the 100 
Obadiah had hidden in a cave = the part of the zodiac in the 
shadow of the earth, — see zodiac); while the prophets of Baal 
are 450 men " (xviii, 22). Notwithstanding the great dispar- 
ity of numbers, Elijah was willing to test their strength. For 
this purpose, he proposed that the two parties should prepare 
each a bullock, dressed and cut in (twelve) pieces. Each was 



380 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

to place his (twelve) pieces on his own pile of wood, but 
neither must put fire under his pile, v. 23). He farther stipu- 
lated that- Baal's prophets should prepare their bullock (Taurus 
setting in autumn) first, which was agreed to ; but wmeri these 
prophets called on the name of Baal (the winter Sun, which 
never conjoins with Taurus), no voice was heard — none an- 
swered. 

Great was the exultation of Elijah. His victory was half 
won. Baal, or the winter Sun, couldn't burn the bullock. The 
Sun didn't enter Taurus in winter ! " Cry aloud," said Elijah, 
"for he is a God ; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he 
is on a journey, or, peradventure, he sleepeth, and must be 
awaked " (v. 27). Elijah guessed the truth — the God slept. 
The Baalites, however, continued their exertions, wounding 
themselves with knives, etc., (cold weather) until after mid-day 
(winter solstice), but no answer came. They were completely 
nonplused, and obliged to desist. 

It was now Elijah's turn. He took twelve stones (the year), 
with w T hich he built an altar, put the wood in order on it, and 
laid his bullock on his wood, and to cap the climax, and in- 
crease to the utmost the eclat of 'his miracle, he ordered twelve 
barrels of water (the latter rain), four at a time, for three several 
times, to be poured over the whole (he forget the former rain 
of Baal's prophets). All being in readiness, Elijah called : 
" Hear me, O Lord, hear me," and the fire of the Lord came 
down and consumed his bullock (Sun entered Taurus, and 
summer came). All which, the people having seen, fell upon 
their knees and exclaimed, " The Lord, he is the Gods ; the Lord, 
he is the Gods ! " Elijah, his victory thus complete, as in a 
spirit of vindictiveness, ordered all Baal's prophets to be taken 
to the brook Kishon (bow Sun = spring, when the Sun sets his 
bow in the cloud), and slain, i. e., winter ended. 

Elijah, having run before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel 
(seed-time of spring), told him there was a prospect of rain — 
the latter rain. This he knew, for he had seen a little cloud, 
such as sailors often observe at sea, " like a man's hand " at 
Carmel (spring), where he put his head between his knees — 
the two halves of the year. He, therefore, warned Ahab 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 381 

to secure a retreat; so Ahab stopped at Jezreel — winter 
ended. 

On learning (1 Kings xix) by a messenger from Jezreel, that 
he was in great danger from that imperious lady, Elijah " fled 
for his life" to Beer-sheba (end of summer). Thence he de- 
parted one day's (month's) journey, and sat down under a ju- 
niper-tree,* — the emblem of winter (Sun enters Sagittarius). 
He now wished he might die, but the Lord upheld him. So 
he slept under the juniper-tree, like Adam and others of his 
predecessors. During his sleep he was twice aroused by an 
angel to take nourishment. Upon these two meals he was en- 
abled to fast the forty days of Lent ; after which he came to 
Mount Horeb (the dry land, where Noah left the ark). 

Being now at Horeb, the Lord asked him what business he 
had there ? Elijah replied : u The children of Israel have for- 
saken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars (cardinal points) 
and slain thy prophets, and I, even I only, am left" — he was 
past the spring equinox (v. 10). However, the Lord told Eli- 
jah to go forth, and stand upon the mount (spring equinox) 
before the Lord. Here the Lord passed by him, and he soon 
beheld or experienced the same phenomena — the whirlwind, 
the earthquake, the rending of the rocks, etc. — that happened 
at the crucifixion of our Savior (Mat. xxvii, 51), but he didn't 
see the Lord (summer) in them. Of course not, for the Lord 
had passed by, and it was winter. However,, after all these, 
there was a fire (the Sun) and then came " a still small voice " 
—a gentle "breeze. This was the Lord's, and on hearing it, Eli- 
jah wrapped his face in his mantle (the clouds), went and stood 
at the " entering in of the cave (the winter hemisphere). 

The Lord again called, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" 
The prophet answered as before (v. 10), but he did not experi- 
ence the phenomena which happened six months before. He 
was now at the beginning of winter, when the Lord said : 

* Besides " the tree of knowledge of good and evil," the Jewish traditions inform us 
of two others; " one of good (summer) and one of evil (winter) — one of life and one of 
death." This juniper was evidently the latter, as Elijah was ready to die under it. 

Solomon wished to build the temple of it, hut his workmen couldn't use it— couldn't 
change winter into summer. He had it taken into the temple, however, when a sibyl 
attempting to sit upon it, her clothes took fire, and she cried out: "Jesus! God, and my 
Lord ! the son of God will yet hang upon that tree " {Be Gubern. Zool. Myth., vol. ii, p. 411). 



382 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" Go, return on thy way (the zodiac) to the wilderness of Da- 
mascus (the intercalary days of spring), or Syria (spring equi- 
nox), and when thou comest, anoint Hazael {whom the Bam 
sees) king over Syria (spring) ; Jehu, the son of Nimshi, or 
Moses, king over Israel, and Elisha (the saving Earn = Aries 
on his meridian), the son of Shaphat (the upright one), of 
Abel-meholah (meadow-of-dancing = summer solstice) to be 
prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that him that 
escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that 
escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay," i. e., the three 
seasons of four months each shall pass in succession. 

So Elijah departed from the fall equinox, and soon found 
Elisha plowing with twelve yoke of oxen (the twelve months), 
and he with the twelfth (the last month of the year). "Elijah 
passed him and cast his mantle (his office) upon him." Elisha, 
at the instance of Elijah, slew his oxen (the year ended), and 
giving them to the people, followed him. 

The two prophets now traveled on together until they came 
near Beth-el, Jericho and the Jordan, the three being very 
near together, if indeed they are not all the same. Elijah, as 
they approached the end of the year, requested Elisha three 
several times to tarry while he went on as the Lord had bidden 
him. Elisha each time declared he wouldn't do it (it was diffi- 
cult just then to say which was the winter, and which the 
summer Sun); so, sending fifty men (the paschal quinqua- 
gesima, or the pentacost) ahead, they two stood by the Jordan 
at Beth-el. The prophets of Jericho now told Elisha the Lord 
would take his master from him that day. Elisha answered : 
" I know it ; hold ye your peace." Elijah then took his 
mantle, which he let fall upon the shoulders of Elisha some ten 
years before, according to the marginal chronology (1 Kings 
xix, 19), and which he had somehow got back, and smote the 
waters of Jordan, and " they divided hither and thither, and 
they went over on dry ground." Being over, Elijah asked 
what he could do for Elisha? Let a double portion of thy 
spirit (the two halves of the year) be upon me, replied the 
latter. "And as they went on talking, behold a chariot of fire 
(the Sun), and horses of fire (the seasons) parted them asunder,. 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 383 

and Elijah went up by a whirlwind (spring monsoon) into 
heaven " (Sun in the summer hemisphere). Notwithstanding 
Elisha cried out in bitterness of soul. " My father, my father." 
Elijah was gone. 

Afterward he appeared to his disciples, like Jesus, on the 
mount (Sinai) of transfiguration, or summer solstice, where he 
was changed into another, i. e., he became the genius of the 
shortening days, which then begin. 

Elisha. 

After Elijah (Kam-Sun) was snatched up into heaven by 
the whirlwind, Elisha (the saving Ram) comes upon the stage, 
being appointed by the Lord to fill Elijah's place. Having got 
the mantle of Elijah, Elisha proceeded at once to the Jordan, 
smote the waters with it, and " said, where is the Lord-God of 
Elijah?" The smitten waters "parted hither and thither, and 
Elisha went over." This was his first miracle. 

Born at the winter solstice, like all the true Saviors, we 
shall find Elisha made the circuit of the Zodiac, like Elijah 
and others of his predecessors. Like them he also performs 
the same miracles. Being urged by the sons of the prophets, 
he sent fifty of them (quinquagesima) to hunt for his master, 
Elijah, well knowing they could not find him, for it was over 
ninety days from the spring equinox to the summer solstice. 
The fifty hunted three days and returned, when Elisha said : 
" Did I not say unto you, Go not ? " 

As in the case of Moses, there was no water (" the water is 
naught " = nothing), and the ground is barren (in consequence). 
Elisha said, " bring me a new cruse,* and put salt therein," 
i. e., let the Sun enter Taurus, when the latter rain would 
occur. So Elisha (the Sun) went unto the spring of the waters 
(the rainy season), and cast the salt (the Sun, the great purifier) 
into the new cruse (the constellation Taurus) and the water 
was healed, i. e., the rain came down, and the land was no 
longer barren. Moses (Aquarius) did the same by casting a 

* The ll cruse," vase or jar denoted any zodiacal constellation, but particularly that 
of Aquarius, which comes to his zenith, or day meridian, as the Sun rises in Taurus. It 
is then the latter rain came (Asiat. Research, vol. viii, p. 73). 



384 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

tree (the month corresponding to Taurus) into the waters (the 
rainy season). 

These were acts of true beneficence on the part of Elisha, 
but the following exceeds almost anything on record for wanton 
barbarity and cruel vindictiveness. Elisha was going up from 
Beth-el, when he met some " little children/' who, in their 
playfulness, seeing the old fellow was bald, said : " Go up, thou 
bald head ; go up, thou bald head." This, to Elisha, was a 
terrible — an unpardonable — insult, and must not go una- 
venged. " Elisha turned back, and looked on them, and cursed 
them in the name of the Lord.-' The Sun passed the twins, 
Gemini, and they were done for, for that year. There came 
two she-bears out of the wood (outside the zodiac), and " tare 
forty and two children of them " — about half the number of 
stars now recognized as belonging to Gemini (BumntCs Astron., 
p. 54). The reader, looking on the celestial globe, will see 
that as the Sun leaves Gemini the distance between this con- 
stellation and the Sun increases until they come in opposition, 
when Gemini sets soon after the winter solstice — slain, as it 
were, by the two extra-zodiacal constellations, Ursa Major and 
Ursa Minor, which appear to chase them to the western horizon, 
but do not themselves set. 

How striking the contrast between this act of Elisha, and 
that of the gentle Savior, who is the self-same Elisha under 
another name, and who in aftertimes, on a similar occasion, 
said : " Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." 

Elisha went " thence to Mount Carmel (fruit season), and 
from thence he returned to Samaria" (winter). This com- 
pleted his first round. 

2 Kings iii. When Jehoram (the Sun will rise up), the son 
of Ahab, reigned over Israel in Samaria, he did evil in the 
sight of the Lord. Being about half and half, he put away the 
images of Baal (winter), but clung to the sins of Jeroboam — 
lie set up the calf in Beth-el. 

Mesha (borrower = winter) having refused to pay his annual 
interest, war was declared, and Jehoram went out of Samaria 
(winter), numbered Israel, went to Jehoshaphat (the spring 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 385 

equinox), and engaged him in his campaign against Mesha, 
king of Moab. These two kings joined the king of Edom. 
The three, being the three seasons of the year, then went and 
fetched a compass of seven days' (months') journey, when they 
fell short of water (2 Kings iii, 9), and feared greatly that they 
would fall into the hands of Moab (water-father = winter). 
Jehoshaphat (Sun at the fall equinox) thought there might be 
a prophet of the Lord near at hand. So one of the king's ser- 
vants referred him to Elisha, who had, some time before, 
washed Elijah's hands. Elisha said : Let's have some music. 
So when the minstrel (the Lyre, which rises with the Sun in 
Scorpio) played, the valley (winter), which Elisha had ordered 
to be made full of ditches, and the w T hole country, were filled 
w T ith water (the rainy season). The Moabites=the four winter 
months, rising up early in the morning (at the spring equinox), 
and seeing the Sun shining upon the water, which appeared 
red, said : " This is blood, and the kings have surely smitten 
one another." They were right, for the year had just ended. 

2 Kings iv. The jpot-qf-oil miracle. The Sun is at the 
spring equinox, where all prophecy begins. The widow 
(Virgo), who has just lost her husband, is just below the 
western horizon. The creditor (the new year) is after her two 
sons (the two halves of summer) to make slaves of them. She 
is in debt and has but one "pot of oil " (the place she occupies 
in the zodiac). This will not suffice to redeem her sons. 
Elisha said, " Borrow of thy neighbors (the coining summer 
months), then fill, and set aside," i. e., the Sun passed through 
the zodiacal constellations from Aries to Virgo, inclusive, when 
there would not be " a vessel more to fill," and summer would 
end. 

2 Kings iv, 8. Birth, death and resurrection of the 
" great woman's " son. It happened soon after the " oil 
miracle," that Elisha went to Shun em (two-rests = the two sol- 
stices, which by the Ptolemaic system now coincided with the 
equinoxes= spring equinox), where he met a "great woman" 
(Virgo, and indeed great,) who forced him to eat (the passover). 
As this man of God (the Sun) often passed that way, the 
"great woman" furnished him a chamber to use while he 
25 



386 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

abode with her. "And it fell on a day (the equinoctial day) 
that he came, turned into the chamber and lay there." He 
told Gehazi (the Earth), his servant, to call the Shunammitess 
(Earth in Virgo). " She stood in the door." Gehazi, at once, 
learned that she had no child, and that her husband was old. 
The man of God was ready to serve her. The " great woman," 
consenting, enjoined " the man of God " to make sure work. 
"Do not lie unto thine handmaid," is her language. "The 
man of God," on his part, assured her that at the " set time " 
(marginal reading), i. e., nine months after, she should " em- 
brace a son," all which came to pass. Such was the manner 
of the child's conception and birth ! 

The child's sickness and death (v. 18). When the child 
was grown he went to the harvest-field. Here all at once he 
was taken sick, and exclaimed to his father, " My head, my 
head." The poor boy had a Sun-stroke. His father said, 
" Carry him to his mother " (Sun in Yirgo). His heart-stricken 
mother took him and held him upon her knees until noon (fall 
equinox), when the child died (the Sun enters Virgo's head 
first and passes over her knees and feet last, when summer, 
her son, dies). She then " went v/p] not down, " and laid him 
on the bed of the man of God" (Sun at the winter solstice), 
and said peace (Yirgo in her zenith). She now mounted her 
ass (the zodiac) and went after " the man of God," whom she 
met at Mount Carmel (spring equinox). While she was " afar 
off," the man of God sent Gehazi to inquire of her (Earth in 
Yirgo) concerning her household. " She answered, it is well " 
(v. 26), meaning so far as Gehazi was concerned ; for she 
wished to confer w T ith Elisha alone touching her son's resur- 
rection. So when she came to the man of God to the hill, she 
caught him by his feet. Gehazi, coming near, would thrust 
her away, i. e., the Earth passing below the equator, Yirgo 
would come in conjunction with the Sun, from which she 
would soon be disengaged, and mount into the upper hemis- 
phere. Elisha, however, kept her company long enough to 
receive a tongue-lashing from the " great woman " for having 
deceived her. Smarting from the biting sarcasm of the injured 
dame, he sent Gehazi with his staff to resuscitate the lad. 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 887 

Gehazi failing, Elisha undertook the job himself. He, there- 
fore, shut himself up with the child (Sun in winter), stretched 
himself upon him, " mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands upon 
hands," and the flesh of the child waxed warm. The lad 
sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Gehazi now called 
the Shunammitess (Earth in Yirgo = spring), and Elisha told 
her to take her son and be off. She, in token of her gratitude, 
bowed herself to the earth (Virgo setting), took up her child 
(Sun in the summer hemisphere) and went her way. 

2 Kings iv, 38. The pottage miracle. Elisha had returned 
to Gilgal (spring), where he found " there was a dearth in the 
land ;' ; — not exactly a famine, but a scarcity of food, as is 
often the case with savages in the spring. The men, there- 
fore, gathered such young and tender herbs as they could find, 
and made "a pot of pottage." When they came to eat of it, 
they found it insipid and devoid of nourishment. Hence the 
natural exclamation — " There is death in the pot ! " — starva- 
tion. Meal (harvest coming on) was brought and stirred into 
the water, when the men ate of it and found " no harm in the 
pot ! " The man of Baal-shalisha, or, of the third Baal, refer- 
ring, doubtless, to the third decan of the month, brought the 
meal, the first fruits of the harvest, as Dr. Smith supposes he 
belonged to the same time and place. 

2 Kings v. The miracle of Naamarts leprosy. JSTaaman 
means pleasantness. He was captain of the Syrian host., i. e., 
lie was the first month of spring — the first four months of the 
year. He was a " lifted up " man (marginal reading), and the 
Lord had by him, given deliverance to the Syrians, i. e., he 
ushered in the spring. He was moreover a valiant man, " but 
he was a leper " — a white man ! 

Now the Syrians had gone out by companies, i. e., by 
months, and " brought away captive out of the land of Israel 
(the four summer months) a little maid, and she waited on 
Naaman's wife (Virgo in spring ; the Israelitess, being Virgo 
six months later). Being in conjunction with the Sun, "the 
little maid " was before (marginal reading) Kaaman's wife, or 
Virgo of spring. The " little maid " told her mistress, that if 
her lord were with the prophet in Samaria (winter), he would 



388 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

be cured of his leprosy, i. e., lie would have a dark skin. The 
king of Syria, Ben-hadad), on learning this, sent a letter to 
the king of Israel (David), asking him to cure his servant 
Naaman of his leprosy. The king of Israel got mad at this, 
rent his clothes, and swore loudly, no doubt, saying : "Am I 
God to kill and to make alive," i. e., am I the Ram, which, set- 
ting in autumn opposite the Sun, kills — brings on winter , or, 
rising in conjunction with the Sun in spring, makes alive — 
brings on summer? He was not God, he'd have him to know, 
— he could neither kill nor make alive, nor could he cure Naa- 
man's leprosy. Why seek a quarrel with me? 

But Elisha, the man of God (Sun in Aries) could. Him 
Ben-hadad should have first consulted. However, the benevo- 
lent Elisha sent word of his own accord to Naaman to come to 
him for a prescription, and so learn that there is a prophet in 
Israel. So Naaman came and stood at the door of Elisha 
(spring equinox). Elisha, whose province it is to say to this 
one " go, and he goeth, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth 
it," said to Naaman, "go and wash in Jordan seven times" — 
once for each of the seven summer months. Naaman, like 
many shallow people now-a-days, was astonished at Elisha's 
simple prescription, got mad about it (blustering weather), but 
his adherents insisting, he tried it, and was cured ! i. e., sum- 
mer passed and dark winter came. 

l^aaman, grateful for the priceless service thus rendered, 
offered, when he next met Elisha (the prescription was given 
just one year before), to bless him ; for, like many patients with 
us, he had nothing but words to give. Elisha, though repeat- 
edly urged, positively refused to take even his blessing (the Sun 
can give, but not take). Naaman, therefore, asked the Lord's 
pardon, saying, "As my master and I bow down in the house 
of Rimmon (summer), the Lord pardon thy servant in this 
thing. And Elisha told him to depart. Naaman (summer) 
had got but a little way (to the next month) when Gehazi (the 
Earth) set out after him "to take somewhat of him" (the 
crops). Though a little suspicious, Gehazi assured Naaman, 
"All is right." Gehazi got "two talents of silver and two 
changes of garments " (spring and fall crops). 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 389 

But when they arrived at the tower (fall equinox) Naaman 
took them from Gehazi, and put them in the house — in store 
for winter. Gehazi, however, went in and stood before Elisha, 
who asked him where he had been. Gehazi answered : " Thy 
servant went no whither." For telling this truth, Elisha 
scolded Gehazi severely (cold weather) and then pronounced 
sentence: "The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave 
unto thee forever," i. e., to the end of the year. Thus poor 
Gehazi departed, " a leper, as white as snow "— the earth is 
sometimes covered with snow in winter ! 

2 Kings vi. The swimming-iron miracle. This myth 
seems to refer to the intercalary days. " The sons of the 
prophets" (intercalary days) dwelt, as we learn (iv, 38), at Gilgal, 
or near the spring equinox, and foretold coming events. They 
said to Elisha (the Sun), " we haven't room enough ; let us go 
to Jordan, and let each man of us take thence a joist, that he 
may make him there a dwelling place." Elisha said, " Go ye." 
But Elisha must go with them, for the Sun must needs be with 
every day. So Elisha went with them, and they cut down 
"the trees" not "wood" as in our fraudulent version, but the 
trees, i. e., certain trees which were destined for a particular 
purpose. But as " ike one" i. e., a particular one, was felling 
the joist, he fell, or dropped the iron into the waters. " And 
he cried and said, alas, master (Adoni), for it was borrowed." 
It was borrowed ! How borrowed ? Why it was the bissex- 
tile, or leap-year day, and borrowed, or asked, for this last is 
the better translation, to fill up the gap, and end the year at 
the proper moment. The Sun (the iron, or ax) coming to this 
gap, fell in, but when another day (joist, for the idea is that of 
joining or bringing together) was thrown in, the iron rose to 
the surface and swam off as though nothing had happened. 
The reader will better understand the above if he will bear in 
mind that the ancients divided the year into three parts — 
Spring, Summer and Winter, and that these were respectively 
called the golden, the silver and the iron ages. This explains 
why the Sun, or the cutting instrument, was denominated " the 
iron." In way of further explanation, I may remark that the 
word translated " horrowed" is precisely the same as that ren- 



390 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

dered Saul, a name for the winter Sun, as before shown. Ig- 
norance and rascality, in the translation of the Bible, went 
hand in hand. 

Elisha made the blind to see, and these that see, be deprived 
of sight. This miracle is simply a play upon the phenomena 
of light and darkness; of day and night, or summer and 
winter. 

Immediately the ax (the Sun) was made to swim, by the 
insertion of the bissextile day, " the king of Syria warred 
against Israel " (v. 8). The Sun was, therefore, on the equinox 
of spring when this war began. Now the reader will bear in 
mind that Syria was spring ; Israel, summer ; and Samaria 
winter =the three seasons according to the ancient division of 
the year. The Syrian king (the first day of spring) pointed out 
to his servants his future camp = the end of spring. The king 
of Israel was informed by the man of God (Elisha), and w T as 
thus enabled to save himself — "not once nor twice" (v. 10). 
" The heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this 
thing " (v. 11) — Syria was like to succumb. Having learned 
that Elisha was the offender, and that he was at Dotham (the 
place of the "latter rain"), the king of Syria besieged that 
city. At this, Elisha' s servant (the Earth) was much frightened, 
a thing not to be wondered at, as the poor boy was blind (be- 
cause of the cloudy weather). Elisha calmed his fears, how- 
ever, and restored his sight (the clouds dispersed), when the 
boy saw " the mountain (summer hemisphere) was full of horses 
and chariots of fire " (summer months). After, " when they 
came down to him " (the earth = Sun in Scorpio), Elisha prayed 
(literally "fell down ") unto the Lord, and said, " Smite this 
people, I pray thee, with blindness," i. e., let dark winter 
come on ; and the blindness came at the request of Elisha 
(v. 18). Elisha, now, at the beginning of w r inter, told' the 
people they were going the wrong way. " Follow me," said 
he, "and I will bring you to the man you seek " (the spring 
Sun) ; but he led them into Samaria (winter). Here he again 
prayed and his followers saw that they were in the midst of 
Samaria (mid-winter, where the days begin to lengthen (v. 20). 

Thus captured and in his power, the king of Israel (Leo, 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 391 

then beginning to set) exclaimed, " My father (the solstices are 
alternately the sons of each other), shall I smite them? shall I 
smite them?" Elisha (Sim at the winter solstice) answered 
no ! but rather " set bread and water before them that they 
may eat and go to their master " (the summer solstice). This 
they did and "the bands of Syria left the land of Israel" 
(v. 23). 

Immediately, however, that tyrant, Ben-hadad (Aries), laid 
siege to Samaria (during the forty days of Lent), and the be- 
sieged were so sorely pressed for food, that they paid eighty 
pieces of silver for an ass's head, and five pieces for the fourth 
part of a cab (cup) of dove's dung. The latter was probably a 
kind of pottage such as Jacob sold equally as dear to his poor 
brother Esau. The price here set down is twenty pieces of 
silver for a small cupful ! The " ass's head," of course, was 
more valuable. Eighty pieces of silver was the price given for 
it. The quantity of silver each piece contained seems to be 
unknown, but a proximate idea of the cost of " an ass's head" 
(the spring) may be gained by circumstantial evidence, which 
is often the best kind. Thus : the Hindu ass slew 1000 men 
on the battlefield of Hell (De Gvhernatii Myth. Zool., vol. 
i, p. 371), and Samson, it is well known, slew 1000 Philis- 
tines on the brink of purgatory, they falling back in and he on 
top of them ! But, besides his use as a"war instrument, he has 
another and greater value. The greatest dignitaries of earth 
have ever delighted in riding the ass. Our Savior even rode 
upon two at once (Mat. xxi, 5), and the practice is still kept 
up by the same class of people, who delight to ride the most 
valuable asses (more at a time than the Savior did) that may 
be had — the laborers ! 

Nevertheless the famine (Lent) continued very sore, for as 
the king of Israel (Leo) passed by on the wall (the equator), a 
woman (Yirgo, just behind him) cried : Help, my Lord, O 
king." The king replied : " If the Lord do not help thee, 
whence shall I help thee? — out of the barn floor (summer), or 
out of the winepress" (winter) ! However, the king kindly in- 
quired what was the matter. 

The poor woman, in great grief, said she and her compan- 



392 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ion (Virgo during summer) had cooked her son (the previous 
year's crop) and eaten him, but now when they were starving, 
her companion had hidden her son (the coming crop), and she 
couldn't find him. 

Perceiving the situation of things, the king became very 
wrathy (Leo), passed by on the wall (over the equator), tore 
off his clothing, and putting on sackcloth (night), threatened 
to' take off Elisha's head (Aries, the first of the zodiacal con- 
stellations). " But Elisha sat in his house (spring equinox), 
and the elders (the twelve months) sat with him," i. e., the 
year had just come to its end, when the messenger of the king 
of Israel came down unto him. " This evil (the famine) is of the 
Lord," said he, " why wait longer for him ? " Elisha replied : 
" To-morrow (next month, when the harvest is ready) a meas- 
ure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel in the gate of Sa- 
maria " (fall equinox). Israel's messenger doubted it, even 
though the Lord opened the windows of heaven, and let it 
down; but Elisha assured him that such would be the case; 
that he would see it, but wouldn't eat of it (2 Kings vii, 2). 
The messenger sent by the king (Leo) of Israel was (Aries). 
The harvest took place when the Sun was in Taurus, or in the 
second month, and not in the first. And bread is almost 
always seen before it is eaten. 

It will be seen from the rest of this chapter (seven) that 
when the Syrians came, the four leprous men at the gate (the 
division between any two seasons, or principal portions of the 
year), joined them as they afterward joined Israel. The Syr- 
ians (spring), frightened at the coalition of Israel (summer) with 
the Hittites and Egyptians (winter), fled in the twilight (the 
interval between winter and spring) for their life, leaving their 
horses and asses (the part of the ecliptic they had just occu- 
pied), at the same time transferring their leprosy (the light of 
the Sun) as they passed, to the Israelites (summer), who now 
stood with the four lepers at the gate, the Syrians having hid 
themselves, i. e., spring ended. The king of Israel, on his 
arrival at the eastern horizon, found " no man, neither voice of 
man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were " 
(v. 10). This, of course, was a disappointment, but the king of 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 893 

Israel (Sun in Leo) was not to be overcome. A. council of war 
was had, and it was determined to pursue the fugitives. " They 
therefore took two chariot horses " (Leo and Virgo) and went 
after the Syrians unto Jordan (fall equinox) ; and lo, all the 
way was full of garments (the crops) and vessels (the months), 
which the Syrians had cast away in their haste" (v. 15). So 
the Israelites spoiled the Syrians, and were thus able, as thieves 
usually are, to sell " a measure of fine Hour for a shekel, and two 
measures of barley for a shekel," thus fulfilling EKsha's prophecy. 
The man (Aries), who wouldn't wait for the Lord (summer) to 
come, was trodden upon by the people in the gate (fall equinox), 
and he died" (v. 20) — Aries set in the west. 

2 Kings viii. Elisha now told the woman (Virgo, as she 
rose in autumn), whose son (summer) he had, six months be- 
fore, restored to life (he didn't tell her he had just killed him 
again), that the Lord had ordered a seven years' (months') fam- 
ine (such occur every winter) and advised her to look out for 
herself. So, as she couldn't do better, like Joseph, she took 
up her abode with the Philistines while the famine lasted. 
With them, though very bad people, she didn't starve, poor 
woman, for six months later, the famine being over, -she re- 
turned to claim her house and her land (Virgo in spring). As 
the king (Leo) of Israel was talking with Gehazi (valley of 
seeing = Earth), i. e., the Earth was in Leo), about the wonders 
Elisha had done, behold ! this woman came along, when Ge- 
hazi, on seeing her (Earth inVirgo), exclaimed, " O King ! this is 
the woman, and this (summer) is her son whom Elisha (has 
again) restored to life." The king (Leo), having heard her story, 
appointed an officer (Pisces, opposite Virgo) to restore all that 
was hers, and it was done (v. 6). 

Elisha next went to Damascus (activity = spring). As it was 
now time for a change of actors, or, rather, of the names of the 
actors, Ben-hadad was taken sick. Desirous of learning the 
event of his disease, he fitted out Hazael (the Pam sees = Aries 
in spring) with forty camel loads of the good things of Damas- 
cus (the 40 days of Lent), and sent him to Elisha, to inquire 
about his recovery. Elisha said : " Go, and say unto him : 
Thou mayest certainly recover; howbeit, the Lord hath 



394 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

showed nie that he shall surely die " (v. 10), i. e., at some 
future day. The language, as in every such case, was so 
shaped that, let the event be as it might, the prophet could 
clear himself from blame. However, he, while delivering 
himself, was affected even to the shedding of tears (the latter 
rain). Hazael, greatly surprised, asked : " Why weepest thou, 
my Lord?" " The Lord," answered Elisha, "hath showed me 
that thou shalt be king over Syria (spring), that their strong- 
holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay 
with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their 
women with, child." 

This was frightful, dreadful, awful language ; even Hazael 
himself was horrified at it, and exclaimed : " But what ; is thy 
servant the dog, that he should do this great thing?" But 
what of it? Shall we be frightened when a madman stares? 
Let's calm ourselves, and examine. In the Hebrew we have 
{ha- Caleb— the dog) ; the article {the) showing that some partic- 
ular dog is referred to. The dog (Canis Major), as we have 
before seen, was the companion of Isis, or Yenus, who had her 
seat in Taurus, i. e., the Dog (Canis) and Taurus set together. 
The influence of the Bull was, therefore, transferred to the 
Dog, by his imbibition of the slain Bull's blood (see cut on 
page 354), and he (the Dog) represented spring, the same as 
the Bull did. The idea meant to be conveyed to the initi- 
ated, by the writer, was that spring and summer from that 
moment would come and go, leaving, as they usually do, their 
crops. 

So Hazael (Aries) departed from Elisha (the Sun), and, 
forgetting what he had just heard, the first thing he did, 
naughty fellow, was to put a wet cloth (the latter rain) over 
Ben-hadad's face, so smothering him to death, he reigning in 
his stead. Moving along over the divisions of his army, he 
dashed Israel's children to the ground, pari passu, thus bring- 
ing Leo (Israel's king) to the eastern horizon at sunrise, and so 
setting fire to the strongholds of Jerusalem (summer solstice), 
and slaying their young men with the sword (the Sun). Moving 
onward still, Yirgo next comes up with the Sun, bearing in 
her womb the rich harvests of the season, which were then 



ELIJAH — ELISHA. 395 

ingathered, i. e., "the women with child were ripped up/' 
Not so horrible, after all. 

However, Hazael repaired, in part, at any rate, the evil he 
did to Ben-hadad ; for he named his son Ben-hadad (chap, 
xiii, 24). 

The last and most wonderful of Elisha's miracles was the 
resurrection of himself. His time drawing near, of course, he 
fell sick. Joash (lire-sun = Leo) came down to him and mourned 
over his face (Sun in Leo) — the days began to shorten. Elisha 
said to Joash : " Smite the ground." Joash " smote thrice, 
and stayed," which was unlucky for the prophet, as foretelling 
his death. The old fellow got mad over it, telling Joash he 
should have smitten five or six times. The last number would 
have taken him to the winter solstice, whereas the " thrice " 
only took him to the fall equinox, where he died, and was 
buried. Three months later, some Moabites (people of Aqua- 
rius) threw a man into the sepulcher, upon the bones of Elisha. 
" He revived and stood upon his feet " (v. 21). This was won- 
derful ! But what became of Elisha? " He stood upon his 
feet." Didn't he walk off? Why, no; "he stood upon his 
feet." But didn't he die again ? Oh, no ; " he stood upon his 
feet." Well, indeed, this was the wonderfulest of all miracles! 
If he had walked off, we might have guessed that he is the 
Wandering Jew. 

But to the solution : As the Sun (Elisha) comes to his win- 
ter solstice, just at the same moment Aries (the man) comes to 
his meridian, and is thus thrown upon Elisha. As the two 
touch each other, both revive, and recommence their northern 
trip to the summer solstice. They " stood," to use seamen's 
language, off to the north — Immanuel ! 



CHAPTER XX. 
JEHOSHAPHAT II-ZEDEKIAH. 

JEHOSHAPHAT (Sun-judges = spring equinox) was king 
over Syria, or Judah, after Ahaziah, the son of Ahab. The 
valley of Jehoshaphat got its name from him, and was the 
place decreed by the Lord for the gathering together of all 
nations, i. e., it was the spring equinox, where the year began, 
and where all the constellations (nations) are at home in their 
proper places (Joel iii, 2). 

This pusillanimous king conspired with the prophets against 
the life of his neighbor, king Ahab ; joining with them for 
this very purpose, in an expedition against Ramoth-gilead, a 
city belonging to Judah, a part of his own domain. The 
result of the battle ensuing therefrom is given under the name 
Ahab. He then went to Jerusalem in peace. Here (at the 
summer solstice) he was sharply reproved by Jehu, the prophet, 
because he had helped the ungodly, and loved them that hate 
the Lord (2 Chron. xix, 2). Jehu, it will be remembered, was 
the Sun at the summer solstice. Jehoshaphat was now (mid- 
summer) threatened with an overwhelming destruction (2 
Chron. xx). A great multitude (the children of Amnion, 
Moab and Mount Seir) were on their march against (opposite) 
him. Even then they were at Hazazon-tamar (shorn-palm), 
which is En-gedi (fountain of the Goat). He was badly scared 
and began to pray to the Lord with all the inhabitants of 
Judah and Jerusalem (for the Sun was at his winter solstice, 
whence he begins to go toward the spring equinox) for help. 
This was unnecessary, for upon Jahaziel (the Ram sees = Aries 
in his meridian), the son of Zechariah (the past Sun), the son 
of Benaiah (the building-Sun), the son of Jeiel (the sweeping 
Ram, because, coming to his meridian, the days cease to 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 397 

shorten), the son of Mettaniah (the giving Sun = spring), a 
Levite (a bundle=the four spring months), of the sons of 
Asaph (the zodiac), came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of 
the congregation (i. e., at the summer solstice), and told Judah, 
or Syria, Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat to be quiet, for the battle 
was not theirs, but God's (2 Chron. xx, 15). To-morrow, says 
the spirit, leave your present position — the summer solstice, 
and go ye down against (opposite) them (to the winter sol- 
stice) ; behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz (winter solstice), 
and ye shall find them at the end of the brook (the Sun's south 
declination) before Jernel (the Ram that lays the foundation = 
Aries on his meridian). Nevertheless, don't fight, but stand 
still and see the salvation of the Lord (v. IT). Again : " To- 
morrow (i. e., the six months following the first six) go out 
(again) against them, and the Lord will be with you " (Imman- 
uel). Accordingly Jehoshaphat and his host fell to the ground, 
and worshiped (bowed down to) the Lord, i. e., the four spring 
constellations went below the horizon, or set, in succession, 
while the Levites (bundles) of the Kohathites (assemblymen = 
the summer which follows spring), and of the children of the 
Korhites {bald-heads— winter), stood up to praise the Lord-God 
of Israel, i. e., the three seasons follow each other throughout 
the year ; every one helping to destroy another (2 Chron. xx^ 
23). Jehoshaphat's army went into Tekoa (spring equinox). 
Here as the men of Judah began to sing, the Lord ambushed 
his enemies, i. e., the Sun, rising with Aries, hid the winter 
constellations which were then overhead. 

When Judah came to the watch-tower (the horoscope of As- 
trology) Jehoshaphat and the Judahites spoiled their enemies, 
the Egyptians, as did the Israelites aforetime. They were three 
days collecting the spoils. On the fourth day (month), reck- 
oning from the winter solstice, they reached the valley of 
blessing (harvest), which is called Berachah (blessing-Sun) to 
this day (2 Chron. xx, 26). All now returned to Jerusalem 
joyfully, for " the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet ; " and " his 
God (Aries) here gave him rest," i. e., he became the Most 
High God, or, Aries in his zenith. The Sun was at the sum- 
mer solstice, and the time was mid-summer. 



398 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Jehoshaphat, like his father, left the high places standing, 
for the people were not yet ready for their removal. In the 
early part of his reign, as has been seen, Jehoshaphat joined 
with Ahab, king of Israel, against Eamoth-gilead, his own city, 
when Ahab was killed. At the close of his reign, he leagued 
with Ahaziah to build ships at Ezion-gaber to go to Tarshish 
(the Sea=the Flood) and Ophir (over=the Flood) for gold. 
Tarshish and Ophir are thus evidently synonyms. However, 
the ships, being made at the wrong time, didn't go, but were 
wrecked at Ezion-gaber (the man's back-bone= summer), as 
Eliezer (the Earn will help), the son of Dodavah (Sun-lover= 
summer solstice), of Mareshah (heading = winter solstice), 
prophesied. "Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers" (2 
Chron. xxi, 1). 

Jehoram. 

Jehoram (exalted Sun), the son of Jehoshaphat, succeeded 
his father to the throne of Jerusalem (summer). He was the 
same as Joram, and king of Israel (2 Kings viii, 16). Like all 
his predecessors of Ahab's house, he did evil in the sight of 
the Lord — shortened the summer days. Nevertheless "the 
Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake," 
though David did precisely the same thing (i. e., caused Uriah's 
death — diminished the Sun's heat in the afterpart of summer), 
" for he had promised him to give him always a light " (the 
Sun). 

During the days of Jehoram, i. e., during the rising of the 
four summer constellations, the Edomites (the four winter con- 
stellations) revolted from under Judah (the four spring constel- 
lations), i. e., the winter constellations begin to rise, while those 
of spring are setting. Jehoram, meanwhile, went forth with 
his horses and all his chariots. He rose up by night (it was 
winter, the night of the year) to smite the Edomites. Libnah 
(Sun-light = Uriah), too, had revolted, because Jehoram had for- 
saken the Lord God, or summer. 

"Moreover, Jehoram made high places in the mountains of 
Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit for- 
nication, and compelled Judah thereto" (v. 11). That is, all 
the summer constellations, passing their zenith, the fornix, or 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 399 

" royal arch" committed fornication (fornix-ation). Those of 
spring having preceded them, Jehoram is said to have compelled 
them to commit fornix-ation ! 

Elijah (Eam-Sun — Aries setting) now sent him a letter 
twitting him of. his faults, and saying that soon he would get 
a grievous bowel complaint, in consequence of which his bow- 
els would rot and fall out, — the summer constellations would 
go below the horizon in the west, and summer = Jehoram, 
would come to his death. 

The Lord now, to carry his purpose into effect, stirred up 
the Philistines and Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians, 
i. e., the six southern constellations, and they came up into 
Judah (the space occupied by Judah at the spring equinox), 
broke into it and carried away all Jehoram's substance (winter 
consumes the products of summer), his sons and his wives, 
leaving only his youngest son, Jehoahaz (the Sun will hold 
on), — the Sun is always left, if the days, months and years do 
pass away. The Lord now (summer being gone) smote him, 
as he had before threatened, and his bowels decayed and fell 
out ! " So Jehoram died of sore diseases." Horrible, wasn't 
it ? Judas lost his bowels in a similar way (Acts i, 18). 

Joash. 

Joash or Jehoash (the Sun is fire) came to the throne when 
" he was seven (months) years old," i. e., when he arrived at 
the summer solstice (his throne), being born, as the Sun is 
every year, at the winter solstice ; where, it would appear, he 
was king over both Judah and Israel, or spring and summer. 
Dr. Smith thinks " there is a discrepancy between his char- 
acter and his actions" (Old Test. Hist., p. 549). The Doctor 
is right, — spring differs from summer. 

Joash made a good king under the guidance of Jehoiada 
(the knowing or spring Sun), i. e., he did his part well in every- 
thing that concerned the people. Still, he did not remove the 
high places (the fornix), for the people would commit fornix- 
ation in them (2 Kings xii, 3). During the growing season, 
under the guidance of Jehoiada, he made collections and 



400 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

repaired the Lord's house, i. e., produced the crops. But after 
the death of Jehoiada, he departed from the Lord and became 
an indifferent king (king of Israel in Samaria), and did that 
which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, as did the kings of 
Israel before him. The Lord would coax him back to him 
again, but Joash heeded him not (2 Chron. xxiv, 19). Still 
the Lord strove with him, sending the spirit of God upon 
Zechariah (aged-Sun = Sun at fall equinox) to remonstrate with 
him, but Joash ordered him to be stoned to death with stones 
(v. 21). Thus it was that Joash requited the kindness of 
Jehoiada by slaying his son. As the wretched Zechariah was 
being stoned to death, he invoked a curse upon the head of his 
murderer as a punishment due him for his ingratitude, — Sun 
came to his winter solstice (v. 22), was stoned to death. 

Accordingly, at the end of the year (at the spring equinox), 
the Syrians (spring) came up against Joash, as king of Israel, 
destroyed his princes and sent the spoil to the king of Damas- 
cus= spring. What is left of the stores of winter, of course, 
goes over to the spring, and thence, if an y, to summer. 

Though a small body, the Lord delivered a very great host 
into the hands of the Syrians. After the Syrians had departed, 
i. e., after spring was gone, Zabad (the gift = crops), son of 
Shimeath, an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad, the son of Shim- 
rith, a Moabitess, his own servants (the sons of Lot's two 
daughters, — Gen. xix), conspired against him and slew him 
on his own bed (winter, — v. 25). 

In 2 Kings xii, we have Jozachar (Zechariah inverted) in 
place of Zabad, and Shomer instead of Shimrith ; and the slay- 
ing w T as done in the house of Millo=Beth-millo=full house= 
the end of the year. Both accounts amount to the same thing, 
and are equally true. " So they executed judgment against 
Joash " (v. 24). 

Amaziah. 

Amaziah (the Sun strengthens) next succeeded to the 
throne of Judah (spring). His mother's name was Jehoaddan 
(whom the Sun adorns = Virgo during summer). " He did 
that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 401 

perfect heart," i. e., he did not ripen the fruits. He didn't 
remove the high places (the long days), but let the people burn 
incense upon them, i. e., he let the flowers bloom (2 Kings, 
xiv, 4.) However, he slew the murderers of his father (the 
winter months), which was right by the law of Moses (Deut. 
xxiv, 16) — Spring always follows winter. 

Numbering his army he found he had 300,000 able-bodied 
men = the last three spring months, the first not being reck- 
oned as able-bodied. To make up this deficiency, Amaziah hired 
100,000 of the king of Israel (the month corresponding to Leo 
being the first of summer. This step was of doubtful propriety, 
and " a man of God " (the Earth), coming along just at the 
time, told him so. But, said the man of God, " if thou wilt 
go, do it ; " but " God (Aries) shall make thee fall before the 
enemy ; for God hath, power to help (raise up) and to cast 
down "= Aries at the two equinoxes. This was probably the 
same as Jeroboam's sin, as by putting the time one month 
Ahead, the whole year would become deranged (see 1 Kings 
xii, 32). 

Though Amaziah disliked to lose his 100 talents, by the 
advice of the man of God, he sent his mercenaries that were 
to come to him from Ephraim (land of fruits) back home; 
wherefore, as they returned home (summer solstice), their 
anger (Sun's heat) was greatly kindled against Judah. Ama- 
ziah now strengthened himself, went to the valley of salt (win- 
ter=the preserver = Hindu Yishnu), and slew the children of 
Seir (the Goat, Esau or Edom), 10,000 (2 Kings xiv, 7). He 
took Selah (a rock=w T inter solstice), and called it Joktheel 
(subdued-Ram = Aries on his meridian). The 10,000 cap- 
tives Judah carried to the top of the rock, cast them thence 
and smashed them in pieces (v. 12). Now it was that the army 
of Israel (Leo), which Amaziah didn't take with him to battle, 
fell (Leo sets) upon the cities of Judah (spring constellations 
just set), from Samaria to Beth-horon, (i. e., from the fall equi- 
nox to the winter solstice), and smote 3,000 of them (the con- 
stellations Taurus, Gemini and Cancer, Aries having just 
cleared his meridian), taking much spoil (the harvest now T , the 
£nd of June, ingathered or threshed). This was a great loss 
26 



402 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

to Judah. However, Amaziah or Judah soon got the upper 
hand again ; for having slain the children of Edom (winter), 
he brought the Gods of Seir (the four winter constellations) 
and set them up to be his gods (in the upper hemisphere), 
bowed down to them (for he was under them), and afterward 
burnt incense unto them, i. e., spring came with its flowers. 
Thus the anger of the Lord was again kindled (the hot 
weather returned). The Lord next sent a prophet unto Ama- 
ziah, who asked : " Why hast thou followed after the gods of 
a people who couldn't deliver themselves from thy hand?" 
(spring follows winter, which it is said to conquer). Amaziah 
said: "Forbear; why shouldst thou be smitten?" "Then the 
prophet (Earth) forbare (vegetation declines after mid-sum- 
mer), and said : I know that God (Aries setting) hath deter- 
mined to destroy thee, because thou hast not hearkened to my 
counsel" (2 Chron. xxv, 16). 

Amaziah king of Judah next proposed to meet Joash face 
to face (2 Kings xiv, 8). This would bring the four spring 
constellations above the equator, and opposite the four summer 
constellations below it ; the exact positions of the two sets of 
constellations at the summer solstice. But Joash (in power — 
in the Sun's company) sent to Amaziah (out of power — spring 
was gone), saying the thistle (Amaziah) that was in Lebanon 
(light of the Sun) sent to the cedar (Joash) that is in Lebanon, 
saying : Give thy daughter (Virgo in summer) to my son 
to wife ; and there passed by a wild beast (Joash) that trode 
down the thistle. Thou hast, indeed, smitten Edom (win- 
ter), and art lifted up (the spring constellations were then 
above the equator). " Glory in this and stay at home," said 
Joash ; for if thou meddle, it will be to thy hurt, i. e., the 
spring constellations, moving onward, would go below the ho- 
rizon and winter would follow. But Amaziah couldn't be easy ; 
for the Gods had decreed his fall— Aries would set. Conse- 
quently Joash went up, and Amaziah came down until the two 
looked each other in the face at Beth-shemesh (the Son's house) 
which belonged to Judah — not Israel, i.e., at the winter sol- 
stice. " So Judah was put to the worst before Israel " (at mid- 
winter), and they fled every man to his tent (spring equinox). 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 403 

Joash next took the king of Judah and demolished the 
walls of Jerusalem (summer solstice), from the gate of Eph- 
raim (fall equinox) to the corner gate (winter solstice), 400 
cubits — 100 for each month, including the extremes, as was 
customary. Thus he took all the gold and silver (Sun and 
Moon) and all the vessels (the other planets) from the house of 
the Lord (summer), with Obed-edom (the three months be- 
tween the summer solstice and the fall equinox), etc., and 
returned to Samaria (winter), where he died. 

At the end of summer, i. e., when the Sun comes to Sagit- 
tarius, Gemini and Cancer remain above the horizon in the 
west at sunrise. They belong to Amaziah, and are the fifteen 
years that he lived after the death of Joash. As these sink 
below the horizon, Amaziah is slain, at mid-winter, by a con- 
spiracy made against him in Jerusalem = the meeting of the 
ends of the year. Lachish is from a root which signifies to 
heap together, and has reference to the end of the year. 

I may here remark that when one constellation, or an 
assemblage of constellations forming a season, parts from the 
the Sun, it dies, expires or breathes out, as in the case of 
Joash ; but the opposing constellations, in setting, are slain, 
as was Amaziah, whose history I have just traced from the 
beginning of his reign to his death. 

Ahaz. 

Ahaz (the grasper=the Earth, or the Sun during the year 
—Jah being understood, according to Fuerst), began his reign 
in Jerusalem (summer solstice) when he was twenty years old. 
He did evil in the sight of the Lord (the days began to shorten), 
unlike David his father, — David had sons born to him hun- 
dreds of years after his death. The name, Ahaz, indicates 
that his rule was not confined to Judah among whose kings 
he is usually reckoned. He assumed more than this; for he 
not only " walked in the ways of the kings of Israel " (2 Chron. 
xxviii, 2), but he " made molten images for Baalim " (the four 
winter constellations), and offered sacrifices in the valley of 
Hinnom (winter), and burnt his children in the fire (the con- 



404 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

stellations as lie passed them in succession), like the heathen 
whom the Lord had cast out (the winter constellations). More- 
over he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on 
the hills, and under every green tree (the summer months). 
That is, as we thus see, he made the circuit of the year. 

Wherefore the Lord delivered him into the hand of the 
king of Syria (Earth in Aries), who smote him and carried off 
many captives. Passing the gauntlet of Judah, he was next 
" delivered into the hand of the king of Israel " (Earth in Leo), 
who also smote him with a great slaughter (Sun at winter sol- 
stice). Then Pekah (eye-opener= Aquarius, or winter solstice, 
because there the days begin to lengthen), the son of Remaliah 
(Sun-adorned=Earth in summer), took him in hand. Here he 
fared no better, for Pakah slew in Judah in one day (month), 
120,000 men (Aquarius rises while Leo sets), because they had 
forsaken the Lord (summer). 

After this monstrous slaughter, on came Zichri, or Zecha- 
riah (the remembering or returning Sun), who slew Maaseiah 
(the works of the Lord = summer) and Azriakim (he that helps 
to set up= Aries) and Elkanah (the year). The children of 
Israel, by the help of all these, took many of their brethren 
captive, and brought the spoil (the crops) to Samaria (the 
beginning of the next winter). Oded (he that sets up= Aries) 
came along at the head of his host (the spring constellations), 
and twitted them (Israel) of what they had done, and that 
because " they had slain Judah in a rage that reached up to 
heaven," i. e., during the winter, they now proposed to keep 
them (Judah and Jerusalem = the seven summer months) 
under for bondsmen and bondswomen, i. e., to produce the 
next season's crops. " But," added Oded, " are there not with 
you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God?" Of 
course there were, for they (the northern constellations) 'were 
above the equator, and what were they there for, if not for their 
sins against the Lord ? 

Xow, therefore, continues Oded, ye children of Samaria 
j winter) get you to your own place (and thus deliver the cap- 
tives you have taken), for the fierce wrath of the Lord (summer 
heat) is upon you. 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 405 

Hereupon Azariah (helping-Sun), son of Jehonan (summer 
Sun), Berechiah (the blessing-Sun), son of Meshillamoth (the 
rewarding-Suns), Jehizkiah (strong-Sun), the son of Shallum 
(peace = solstitial-Sun), and Amasa (burden^the crops), the son 
of Hadlai (rest = the end of the season), all sons of Ephraim 
(fruits), " stood up (i. e., went up) against them (the winter 
constellations) that came from the war " (2 Chron. xxviii, 12). 

" So the armed men (the winter constellations) left (went 
away from) the captives (summer constellations), leaving the 
spoil (of the Egyptians) before the princes and all the congre- 
gation." The men (summer constellations) named in v. xii rose 
up, took the captains, fed, clothed, and otherwise cared for 
them. What an array of jaw-breaking names, and what a 
roundabout way of telling a very simple story. Why not say 
at once that the crops of summer support the people during 
the year % Oh ! but that wouldn't do ; the people could under- 
stand such language, and thence their spiritual advisers might 
help raise the crops. 

Having secured their annual stores, they (the men named 
in v. xii) returned to Samaria (winter came on). Here they 
met more trouble. The Edomites (winter months) had risen 
up and smitten Judah (the spring constellations had set oppo- 
site). The Philistines had invaded the low country and the 
south of Judah (half the spring and the four winter constella- 
tions were below the equator) and were making sad havoc 
among Ahaz's cities, having taken Beth-shemesh (summer sol- 
stice), Ajalon (Aries in the fall), Gideroth (the foldings=the 
equinoxes), Timnath (the South) and Gimzo (the sycamores= 
the place of Aries and Taurus). 

Thus the Lord hath brought Judah low, because of Ahaz, 
i. e., the Sun, passing to the winter constellations, brings the 
Earth in conjunction with those of Judah, hence the Earth's 
nakedness w T as transferred to Judah, because Ahaz had trans- 
gressed against the Lord. 

Tiglath-pileser * (Sun in winter solstice), king of Assyria 

* Rawlinson says Tiglath-pileser is=" Be worship given to Hercules. 1 ' Hercules, it is 
well known, was the Sun. The term "worship" carries the idea of J 'ailing, or getting 
down, or debasing one's self, as does the Sun in winter. Pil, or Pal=Bal or Baal=the left 
hand, or winter Sun. So Satan is Samael=the left hand ram, or Aries in winter, and is 



406 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

(the stepping-up=the lengthening of the days from the winter 
solstice), next came to Ahaz, " but he strengthened him not " 
(v. 20). "Ahaz took a portion out of the house of the Lord, 
and of the king's house, and of the princes (i. e., most of the 
four spring constellations set) and gave to the king of Assyria; 
but he helped him not" (v. 21). In 2 Kings xvi, 8, he re- 
moved the gold and silver, which indicated the same thing. 
"As the days lengthened the cold strengthened," and his dis- 
tress increased. This was because he sacrificed to the Gods of 
Damascus (i. e., he brought the Earth in conjunction with the 
spring constellations one after another), "which smote hirn." 
These Gods (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer) helped others 
(when in the summer hemisphere), and he thought they ought 
to help him, but being south of the equator, they ruined him — 
stripped him, the Earth being bare in winter, and the Sun, 
shorn of his summer rays. 

Verses 24, 25 relate the manner in which Ahaz ended his 
career ; how he gathered together all the vessels of the house 
of the Gods, i. e., how he came to the spring equinox ; how he 
cut them in pieces, i. e., passed each in turn ; how he closed 
the doors of the Lord's house, i. e., ended the year, and set up 
altars at every corner of Jerusalem, i. e., in coming back to the 
east, or the end of the year, he set the cardinal pointy all right 
again. 

"And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in 
the city, but not in the sepulchers of the kings of Israel " (v. 
27), i. e., the year did not end with summer, but with winter. 

Hoshea. 

Hoshea (Savior), the last and best king of Israel, is the 
same as Joshua ; the same also as Jesus. Like his successor, 
he was the son of Elah (Aries on his meridian, as at the winter 
solstice). He began his reign in Samaria (winter) in the 

the angel of the planet Mars, who has his •' Day-house " in Aries. Eser=Zira= zodiac, 
according to Oppert. Tiglath-pileser was king of Assyria. The root of this last word 
signifies to step up ; the word itself, a step. Assyria proper lay east of the Tigris, i. e., 
east of the North, and may be assigned to that part of the Sun's ecliptic wherein the days 
lengthen Tiglath-pileser, therefore, as king of Assyria must have reference to the 
winter solstice. 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 407 

twelfth year of Ahaz (i. e., at the end of the twelfth month), 
and reigned nine years, i. e., until the following fall equinox. 
Hoshea " did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the 
kings of Israel that were before him " (2 Kings xvii, 2), i. e., 
though the cold strengthened, the days lengthened from the 
winter solstice, while with the other kings who ruled over 
Israel in Samaria, they grew shorter. Shalmaneser=Pileser 
= winter solstice, came up against (opposite him) and took 
presents from Hoshea, because he was his servant, i. e., summer 
serves winter. At length Shalmaneser formed a conspiracy 
against (opposite to) the king of Assyria, i. e., the days grew 
shorter instead of longer; for he sent to So (the hider=Sun 
from fall equinox to winter solstice), king of Egypt, and from 
that time no present, tribute, w T as brought. The king of 
Assyria (winter solstice), therefore, put him in prison (the 
winter hemisphere), for he had nothing to redeem himself with. 

Thus in the ninth and last year of Hoshea's reign, the king 
of Assyria took Samaria (winter), and carried Israel (captive) 
away into Assyria. He there placed them in Halah (the win- 
dow) in Habor (the joining-together place), by the river of 
Gozan,(of the fleece = the crops of summer), and in the cities 
of the Medes (middle cities). The writer chose to be very 
exact that there might be no mistake as to the whereabouts of 
the poor Israelites, or the twelve tribes, during their captivity. 

Here, then, we have the famous Babylonian, or Assyrian 
captivity. Many other captivities there were, but this one is 
particularly doted upon, because of the loss of the ten tribes, 
which have never been found till now. Being liberated after 
a captivity of seventy years (Jer. xxv, 12), these ten tribes 
went, theologians never could tell where. And though they 
have hunted for them from that time to the present, they are 
still as much in the dark as ever. But I will endeavor to find 
these " ten lost tribes " for them. Their captivity lasted seventy 
years. This number, being a multiple of ten, contains the last 
seven times, which is equal to the six months (one of the two 
extremes being counted twice, as was customary) the Sun was 
below the equator. At the spring equinox all were liberated, 
but lo ! ten of the twelve tribes were not to be found. Only 



408 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

two were left, Judah and Benjamin = Aries and Libra; the 
Sun being in the first, and the Earth in the last ! Thus the 
truth flashes suddenly upon my reader's mind, and the " ten 
tribes " are found, never more to be lost ! and though lost every 
year, they will ever be found again without difficulty. The 
trouble in finding them heretofore was in looking where they 
were not. 

How it ever came that this Babylonish captivity was looked 
upon as a laterality, I can't possibly conceive. Does any person 
alive and in his senses believe, or can he conceive even, that 
ten-twelfths of the American people could be captured and 
taken into any part of the globe whatever, and all knowledge 
of their whereabouts, or of their extinction, if that be supposed, 
as in this case of the Israelites, be lost, or obliterated from the 
records of time? The thing is an absurdity — an impossibility 
upon its face. The Babylonish captivity is a myth ; if not, it 
is a lie. 

Hoshea disappeared as mysteriously as did the ten tribes. 
He was "cut off as the foam upon the water". (Hos. x, 7). 
Doubtless Satan whisked him off into his capacious den, Hell, 
or the winter hemisphere, with the ten lost tribes. Poor 
Hoshea ! he was a good king indeed, for he shared with his 
unfortunate subjects the same fate, going directly to Hell with 
them ! Such kings are rare in any age or nation, and are not 
to be found in our civilized age. 

Hezekiah. 

Hezekiah began his reign in the third year (month) of 
Hoshea. His name signifies strong-sun~the summer sun. He 
was the son of Ahaz, and also of David (2 Kings xviii, 3), as 
being the summer Sun, and reigning between the two equi- 
noxes. An excellent king he was, too, for he removed " the 
high places," cut down the groves (the lunar months?), and 
brake in pieces Moses' brazen serpent (v. 4). He trusted in 
the Lord God of Israel, and in this respect he was unlike all the 
kings of Judah, both before and after him (v. 5). Cleaving 
unto the Lord (the six summer months), the Lord was with 
him, and he prospered whithersoever he went. He rebelled. 



J EHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 409 

and his rebellion was, of course, against the haughty king of 
the Assyrians (winter solstice), and smote the Philistines, even 
unto Gaza {fern, of ez— a goat) — "from the tower of the 
watchmen to the fenced cities," i. e., from the spring to the 
fall equinox. 

In the fourth year (month) of Hezekiah, and the seventh 
of Hoshea, i. e., at the summer solstice, Shalmaneser (the oppo- 
site of the summer solstice) again besieged Samaria, and having 
taken it, at the end of three years (months), carried Israel with 
him, as in the time (ninth year) of Hoshea, into captivity (into 
the winter hemisphere), and imprisoned them as before (xvii, 6). 
This was because summer passed away, and winter came (v. 12). 

In the fourteenth,* i. e., in the seventh year (month) of 
Hezekiah, Sennacherib (winter solstice) came up against all the 
fenced cities of Judah (the four spring months), " and took 
them," i. e., when the last of the four spring constellations 
(Cancer) sets, it is mid-winter, and summer is gone. Hezekiah 
now found himself " used up." He therefore told Sennacherib 
that " he had offended," and would bear the burden the king 
saw fit to put upon him. Accordingly, the king of Assyria 
demanded the silver and gold of the temple. These being sur- 
rendered, Sennacherib sent Tartan (winter solstice), Pab-saris 
(big eunuch = winter), and Pab-shakah (big cup-bearer = Aqua- 
rius) from Lachish (winter solstice) to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah 
(summer). These calling to the king, there came out to them, 
Eliakim (Aries on his meridian), the son of Hilkiah (smooth- 
sun = winter), which was over the household (the Sun is over 
the year), and Shebna (youth =new year's sun), and Joah 
(brother-sun), the son of Asaph (collector = end of the year). 

Hezekiah being now fairly caught, Rab-shakeh began to 
ridicule him. "Where now is your confidence, seeing you 
have rebelled against me?" (vv. 20, 21). Ha, ha! you have 
trusted upon a bruised reed — even upon Egypt — on which, if 
a man lean, it will pierce his hand. Such is Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt, unto all who trust him. 

* This number, fourteen, being a multiple of seven, may have some reference to the 
name Sennacherib, which means, says Rawlinson, " Sin (the Moon) has multiplied breth- 
ren " (Five 3Ion., vol. ii, p. 246). Libra is certainly the seventh of The zodiacal constella- 
tions, and the first of those south of the equator. 



410 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

"But we trust in the Lord." Aha! you do, eh? Whose, 
the high places and the high altars ye have thrown down, and 
taken away, I'd like to know ! Swear allegiance to my king, 
the king of Assyria, and you shall have two thousand horses 
at once, if you be able to put riders on them. But Rab-shakeh 
talked gibberish to Eliakim. Don't speak to me in the Jews' 
language, said he ; speak to thy servants in the Syrian tongue. 
Rab-shakeh would do no such thing; he didn't understand 
Syrian, for it wasn't yet spring. Hadn't he been sent to tell 
them they should eat their own dung, and drink their own 
piss (delicate, but Bible language) with them that sit upon 
the wall (winter solstice), i. e., weren't they to live upon what 
they could pick up, like other savages? Of course they were. 
The parties understood each other well enough. 

But Rab-shakeh (great irrigator = the rainy season) went on 
in a loud voice : Don't let Hezekiah deceive you ; have nothing 
to do with his trusting in the Lord ; it is not yet summer. 
Make the king of Assyria a present (the increment of the length- 
ening days), and then you " may eat, every one, of his own vine, 
and every one of his own fig-tree, and drink ye, every one, of 
the waters of his cistern " (v. 21). " Until I (the lengthening 
days) come and take you to your own land, a land of corn and 
wine," etc., where ye may live. Don't listen to Hezekiah' s 
" the Lord will deliver us." I can deal with you as well as he. 
The lengthening days extend from the winter to the summer 
solstice, during the last four. months of which the crops are 
grown. Where are the Gods of Hamath, of Arpad, of Hena 
and Ivah (all Syrian, or spring, cities)? Have they delivered 
you from my hand? How, then, can the Lord deliver Jerusa- 
lem out of my hand? Clearly, he could not. The people held 
their peace (v. 36). 

But Eliakim rent his clothes, went and told Hezekiah what 
Rab-shakeh had said. Hezekiah then (xix, 1), in turn, rent his 
clothes and put on sackcloth (winter apparel), and sent Eliakim 
to Isaiah (Hosea, Hoshea, Joshua, or Jesus=the Savior), the 
prophet (spring-Sun), the son of Amoz = strength. On his ar- 
rival, Eliakim accosted Isaiah, saying: "This is a day of 
trouble and of rebuke, and of blasphemy ; for the children are 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 411 

come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth " 
{xix, 3). The labor, being tedious, the patient was exhausted, 
and stimulus was needed. This the increasing heat of the Sun 
would soon furnish, when the labor would be safely concluded 
— spring would come indeed. 

Though the Lord thy God would listen to Rab-shakeh (the 
latter rain), yet fair weather would certainly come (v. 4). And 
thus would summer and winter alternate (for Hezekiah had re- 
moved the high places, i. e., divided the year into two seasons). 
Don't fear for what Rab-shakeh has said, rejoined Isaiah. I 
will send a blast (the March monsoon) upon him, and cause 
him to fall by his own sword (the rainy season ceases at the 
change of the monsoon in spring). The angel of the Lord 
(Aries) went out in the night (from the winter hemisphere), 
and smote of the Assyrians "a hundred, four score and five 
thousand " * (so supposed), for they were found the next morn- 
ing (the spring equinox, " all dead corpses " (v. 35). So Sen- 
nacherib departed, went and returned (direct and retrograde 
motions of astronomy) and dwelt at Nineveh (Pisces). 

Unhappy Sennacherib ; no sooner had he got home, than 
he went to worship in the house of his god, JSTisroch (constella- 
tion of the Eagle, which rises with the Sun in Scorpio) ; when 
his two sons, Adrammelech (bright-king) and Sharezer (fire- 
prince), slew him and fled to Armenia ( A rarat= spring). Esar- 
haddon, the breastless one, or Amazon, in contradistinction oiEl- 
shaddai, the breasted Ram, or nourisher=the Ram of summer 
(from esar=" prohibition" and haddon, u the breast"), reigned 
in his stead. 

The Dial of Ahaz. 

I come next to the story of Ahaz's dial. This king was 
probably the same as Osymandyas, king of Egypt. This last 
had in his temple a " vast circle of gold, a cubit in thickness 
and 365 cubits in circumference, denoting the days of the 

* All the numbers in the Bible, whether extravagant or otherwise, doubtless have a 
definite significance, which in time will be better understood. Drop the ciphers in the 
number named above, and we have 185. Doubling this, and the product is 370. ten more 
than the number of degrees in the Sun's ecliptic. This ten probably has some relation to, 
or connection with, the ten degrees of Ahaz's dial, which will be next noticed. 



412 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

year." However, Ahaz's story is told in this (20th) chapter of 
2 Kings, repeated in 2 Chron. xxxii, and again in Isaiah xxxviii. 
The three recitals agree in most respects, while they disagree 
in others. This makes no difference in mythology, as the gist 
of the legend is the same, though related in a thousand differ- 
ent forms. 

The solution of this myth has, I believe, never been 
achieved ; being considered by theologians as one of extreme 
difficulty. Bible commentators have usually passed it by, as it 
would seem, under the notion of " least said, soonest mended" 
¥m. Smith, of Bible Dictionary notoriety, thinks in this case 
" the best course is to follow the most strictly natural meaning 
of the words." To this I at once agree, and proceed to ex- 
pound this enigma, this opprobrium theologicorum in a scien- 
tific manner. 

I note that in these three recitals, we have the personifica- 
tions — Hezekiah (strong-Snn = the summer Sun, or simply 
summer), Isaiah (saving-Sun), the son of Amoz (strength = sum- 
mer), i. e., the summer genii on the one hand, and Sennach- 
erib (winter-sun), Adrammelech (king-of-light) and Sharezer 
(fire-prince), his two sons, who slew their father ; besides Esar- 
haddon (Amazon = the breastless on e= winter) on the other or 
winter side, i. e., the year is divided into summer and winter,. 
Hezekiah being the former, as above indicated. 

"In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death" (2 Kings 
xx, 1). In what days? Why in the days when Sennacherib 
was slain (xix, 37) by his two sons, about the fall equinox, 
when Pisces, the last of the winter constellations, sets, i. e., is 
slain J and Esar-haddon (the Amazon) succeeded his father at 
the beginning of the next winter. And why was Hezekiah 
sick unto death? Because the calendar appears to have got out 
of order, and so needed correction. This the ancients did as 
we still do. " If we assume," says Bunsen, " that the Egyp- 
tians were aware that the true solar year was not a quarter of a 
day longer than 365 days, but about eleven minntes less, the 
Phoenix period (500 years) would give them a means of recti- 
fication similar to that which the Gregorian calendar gives for 
the Julian year, only a more complete one" {Egypt, vol. iii, 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 413 

p. 68). Thus we have the nature of Hezekiah's sickness ; his 
end being too near. 

So Hezekiah, in his distress, " turned his face to the wall 
{summer solstice), and prayed to the Lord" — the correct start- 
ing point. The Lord, on his petition, directed Isaiah, " afore 
he was gone into the middle court " (mid-summer), to tell Hez- 
ekiah, " I have heard thy prayer (detected the error) ; I will 
heal thee (rectify it) ; I will deliver thee and this city (summer 
solstice, which was out of place by the over-reckoning) out of 
the hand of the king of Assyria. This he would do for both 
his and his servant David's sake (i. e., in order to have correct 
time). 

Now for the cure. Isaiah directed a cataplasm of a " lump 
of figs " to be placed " on the boil " (the error), and Hezekiah 
" recovered " — was alive, in the original. But why " a lump 
of figs?" Because the fig was, like the pomegranate (seeded- 
apple), and for the same reason (its numerous seeds), a female 
symbol.* Its application denoted where the summer ought 
to end, and that it properly did end as the Sun left Virgo. 
Hezekiah's sickness was caused by the addition of six hours 
(too much by 11 m. 12 sec.) to the end of every year, and this 
addition had, in the course of a long series of years, shoved 
Virgo partially over into the winter hemisphere, as was discov- 
ered by an inspection of the heavens. Pushing her back again 
into her proper place, remedied the evil. This was signified 
by the fig poultice. 

Now let us look back a little. In 2 Sam. xv, 16, 17, we 
find that when David (summer Sun) fled, i. e., went into the 
winter hemisphere, " he left ten women, one third of the thirty 
days allotted to Virgo, to keep the house, taking the rest with 
him. These ten women David didn't have intercourse with, 
but Absalom (winter Sun) went in unto them "in the sight of 
all Israel," i. e., after the fall equinox. In 2 Sam. xx, 3, it is said 
David took these ten concubines and put them in ward, i. e., 

* Formerly, it was customary, in some parts of England, to eat figs on Palm Sunday, 
which comes near the spring equinox, when the Virgin Mary (Virgo of the Zodiac), as it 
was supposed, conceived. The day was then called Fig Sunday. 'Twas also "that 
worthie day wherein our Savior Christ (the Sun) is thought to come unto Jerusalem (sum- 
mer). Bonn's Brand's Pop. Antiq., vol. i. p. 124. 



414 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

under guard, in the care of somebody else ; but did not himself 
go in unto them. 

Again : Solomon (1 Kings xi, 3) had 700 wives and 300 
concubines — 1000 in all ; the proportions being nearly the same 
as in David's case. These ten days, then, as I will call them, 
probably answered to the ten degrees the shadow was brought 
backward on the dial or circle (or the Sun's ecliptic) of Ahaz. 

Although the fig poultice had restored Hezekiah's health, 
he lacked the sign by which he might know of his recovery. 
He, therefore, applied to. Isaiah (v. 8) for the sign. So " Isaiah 
the prophet — 'twas not now the Isaiah of the middle court, or 
mid-summer Sun, but Isaiah the prophet, or the Sun at the 
spring equinox) — cried unto the Lord, and he brought the 
shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone done in 
the dial of Ahaz" (the Sun's ecliptic), i. e., the true time was 
found to coincide with the Sun in the first degree of Aries. 

At that time precisely (the spring equinox) Berodach Bala- 
dam, king of Babylon (winter), sent Hezekiah a present (these 
ten days), for he had heard that he had been sick. In turn, 
Hezekiah showed the king of Babylon all the precious things 
(the summer crops) of his house; wherefore Isaiah (the autum- 
nal Sun (not Isaiah the prophet) warned him that the time 
(winter) would come when all he had would be taken from him, 
and carried captive into Babylon ; " nothing shall be left, saith 
the Lord " (v. 17). Hezekiah didn't care, so that " peace and 
truth be in my days" — correct time. 

By this act of the Lord, Hezekiah's life was prolonged, it is 
said, fifteen years (days, for shanah, translated years, literally 
means a shine, i. e., a day). Now, any one can see, that by 
calling the 5th of August, the 15th, it will take just fifteen 
days more to make the thirty. Of course, the alteration didn't 
affect the length of summer any way, but the Lord must have 
his joke as well as man. 

Thus was done in Hezekiah's time, just what Gregory XIII 
did at a much later day. He found that, from the Council of 
Nice in 325, when the vernal equinox fell correctly on the 21st 
of March, up to his own time, 1582, there was an over-reckon- 
ing of ten days, and that the spring equinox took place incor- 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 415 

recti y on the 11th of March. To correct this error, he decreed 
that the 5th day of October should be reckoned the 15th ; and 
to keep the right time in the future, he ordered that every cen- 
tennial y ear which could not be divided by four, should not be 
bissextile, or leap year, as it otherwise would be. Thus Greg- 
ory XIII made the shadow go back ten degrees u on the dial of 
Ahaz " in his time, and provided that it should return back one 
degree three times in every 400 years, i. e., he prevented Heze- 
kiah from getting so sick again, by administering to him at the 
proper time! Catholics readily adopted the N. S., but Pro- 
testants refused until compelled by act of British Parliament 
in 1752, to adopt it. 

It will be noticed that from the Council of Nice to Gregory's 
time was something more than 1200 years ; that from the first 
allusion to leap-year day in Gen. xv, 16, up to Hezekiali's time, 
is, also, 1200 years; from Hezekiah to the Council of Nice was 
something short of 1200 according to Bible chronology, which 
is doubtless inexact. The relations of the three periods are 
sufficiently near for our purpose, variations in chronology are 
often vastly greater, particularly in Bible chronology. 

Manassah. 

Next in order comes the wicked Manassah. We must re- 
member that Hezekiah died at the fall equinox, and was suc- 
ceeded by his son, Manassah (forgetful n ess = winter), to the 
throne. Manassah, it is said, was king of Judah, which looks 
odd, as compared with the other kings of Judah. But let it 
be borne in mind that the dish in his case was turned upside 
down, and the winter constellations now (autumn) occupied 
the place the summer constellations did six months before. His 
mother's name was Hephzi-bah (my delight — the crop — is in 
her= Virgo). So Manassah was the son of summer, i. e., the 
winter Sun (2 Kings xxi). 

He, like Ahab, was a very naughty king ; and did evil in 
the sight of the Lord ; for he rebuilt the high places which his 
father had thrown down ; made a grove like the one Ahab 
made ; worshiped the host of heaven (i. e., was under and op- 



416 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

posite the summer constellations); built altars in the house of 
the Lord, i. e., the winter constellations appeared where those 
of summer did six months before; and in the two courts 
(halves) of the house of the Lord (summer). He passed his 
children through the fire of the valley of Hinnom (Sun in win- 
ter) ; observed times (winter holidays) ; " used enchantments," 
i. e., in coming to the winter solstice, the Sun " bruised the 
head of the serpent" (nachash=a serpent, the word here used), 
" dealt with familiar spirits " — asah ob, turned the water-skin 
(Aquarius), i. e., began his northern tour), and " wrought much 
wickedness in the sight of the Lord," i. e., the Sun made his 
greatest southern declination. The translation of King James, 
it would seem, is here willfully wrong, since the chance of mis- 
taking the meaning of the original is small indeed. 

Manasseh also set up a graven image of the grove, in the 
house of the Lord, i. e.. Manasseh (the winter Sun) set up the 
winter constellations, which are imaged, or outlined as animals 
and things, in the places occupied six months before by the 
summer constellations. In short, " Manasseh seduced them 
(the children of Israel = the four summer constellations) to do 
more evil than did the nations (the winter constellations) 
whom the Lord (summer) slew before the children of Israel. 
That is, the four summer constellations, by the rising of the 
four winter constellations with the Sun, were drawn, as it were, 
along overhead toward the west, and thus more evil was done, 
because it was winter, than when these same winter constella- 
tions set opposite the Sun, when it was summer. 

'Twas then, too, that the Lord stretched the line of Samaria 
(winter), and the plummet of Ahab (the winter solstice) over 
Jerusalem (the upper hemisphere), and thus wiped the dish 
and turned it upside down (reversed the hemispheres). 'Twas 
then, he forsook the remnant of his inheritance (Libra and 
Scorpio) and gave them into the hands of their enemies, the 
four winter constellations. 

Thus it was that " Manasseh shed innocent blood very 
much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other " 
— the winter constellations were all in the upper hemisphere, 
and it was spring, when the earth is found dreary and desolate. 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEK1AH. 417 

Winter was gone, however, and Manasseh, the naughty boy, 
was dead ! 

Amon. 

Amon (a prop*) was the next king after Manasseh. His 
reign was short, only two years (months) in Jerusalem (the 
summer hemisphere. Meshullemeth (friend of God), daughter 
of Haruz (activity) of Jotbah (good), was his mother. He sac- 
rificed unto the carved images which his father made, but didnH 
humble himself before the Lord as did his father, i. e., he didn't 
get beyond the summer solstice (2 Chron. xxxiii, 22, 23). His 
servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house 
(summer solstice, — v. 24). " The people of the land made Jo- 
siah, his son, king in his stead " (v. 25). 

JOSIAH. 

Josiah (healing-Sun = Sun at summer solstice, in allusion to 
the end of the plague season). Josiah was an excellent king. 
Born at the winter solstice, as the Sun still is, he came to the 
throne (summer solstice) at the age of eight years (months). 
Thus young, he sought the God of David at once (Aries in his 
zenith). In his twelfth year (winter solstice) he began to 
purge Judah and Jerusalem, i. e., the days began to lengthen 
(see the Zodiac). At this he worked earnestly, for " he brake 
down the altars of Baalim in his presence," i. e., the winter 
constellations set during summer. He also " cut. down the Sun 
images" (marginal reading), i. e., the constellations through 
which the Sun was passing, reduced the groves, etc., (the sum- 
mer months) "to dust and strewed it (the dust) upon the 
graves (the spaces just vacated by the winter constellations) of 
them that had sacrificed unto them." This done, Josiah, or 
the Sun, will be found at Naphtali (Yirgo), as stated in 2 Chron. 
xxxiv, 6. 

Here, according to the reckoning with which his reign 
began, he would be 18 (months old), as stated in v. 8. Josiah 
from hence sent Shaphan (hedge-hog = winter), the son of 
Azaliah (side-Sun = Sun in Libra), and Maaseiah (Sun's work= 

* The days were growing longer, i. e., were being propped up, hence a prop, or Amon- 

27 



418 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the crops), and Joah (Sun-brother = winter), the son of Joahaz 
(summer Sun), the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord, 
i. e., to bring about another summer. Thus we have the 
proper actors of this solar drama, with their pedigrees all right 
and in due order. They went to repair the house of the Lord, 
i. e., to bring back the summer just ended. They did so, and 
when they came back to Hilkiah (Sun's house), the high priest, 
they deposited the money (the gold and silver, i. e., the crops) 
into the house of God (Aries in his zenith=summer solstice), — 
v. 9. These crops, or the money for them, the Levites (cardi- 
nal points) had gathered of Manasseh (winter =4 months), of 
Ephraim (spring =4 months), of the remnant of Israel (Libra 
and Scorpio=2 months), and of Judah and Benjamin (Leo and 
Yirgo=2 months; the last, Yirgo, extending to the equator, 
which divides Israel). "And they returned to Jerusalem " 
(v. 9). Though the amount was very great, all drew from it 
ad libitum, no account being kept, for " they dealt faithfully " 
(2 Kings xxii, 7). Yes ! though having free access to the 
treasury, Josiah's men proved faithful. The like transaction 
now-a-days would justly be accounted a miracle. 

The names of these workmen (for they' should be handed 
down to the latest posterity in letters of gold) were Jahath 
(union = fall equinox) and Obadiah (the Sun's servant=the 
Earth), of the sons of Merari (bitterness = winter) on the one 
side, and Zachariah (remembering-Sun = spring equinox) and 
Meshallum (Ram's friend), of the Kohathites (summer constel- 
lations), on the other. No wonder King Josiah's workmen 
were faithful ! 

Just at this, the nick of time (mid-summer), Hilkiah (the 
dividing Sun), lucky fellow, found the Book of the Law (the 
ten or twelve commandments *) of the Lord, as given by the 
hand of Moses (v. 8). This book of the law Hilkiah gave to 
Shaphan (winter), who, having read it before the Lord during 
the year, brought it back again to the king, saying : "All (the 
year) that was committed to thy servants, they do it " (2 Chron. 

* The ten or twelve months of the year. The ancients at first had but ten months in 
the year. These were afterward increased to twelve. Hence the ten tables of the 
Hebrews and the twelve of the Romans, both containing the laws or phenomena to be 
observed during the year. 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 419 

xxxiv, 16). The king now (mid-summer) commanded Hilkiah 
and Ahikam (his raised-up brothers Sun in winter solstice), 
and their associates Achbor (winter) and Asahiah (summer), to 
go and inquire of the Lord concerning the words of the book 
(year) that was found (v. 21). 

So Hilkiah went to Huldah (a weasels Virgo peeping out 
of the east at Sunrise) the prophetess (because in the east), 
the wife of Shall urn (the crops), the son of Tikvah (hope), 
the son of Harhas (winter), the keeper of the wardrobe (winter 
clothing). The reader will thus perceive that Huldah's pedi- 
gree is exact. 

Well, Huldah* prophesied, and told them at once that 
winter would come after summer, and that all the curses writ- 
ten in the book would come also with winter (v. 24). But as 
for the king of Judah, because his heart (Aries) was tender, 
and he bowed before me, I will gather him to his grave in 
peace, so that his eyes shall not see the evil spoken of. Aries, 
the first of the spring constellations, sets as the Sun enters 
Libra. So they brought the king word again (Sun in winter 
solstice, — v. 28). 

Thence, i. e., from the winter solstice, the king departed, 
and went with his people up to (not into) the house of the 
Lord (spring equinox). Here "he read in the ears of the 
people all the words of the book of the covenant that was found 
in the house of the Lord " (v. 30) — not the book of the law of 
the Lord, but the book of the covenant, or spring equinox. 
"And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem (the six 
summer months) and Benjamin (the first of the southern con- 
stellations), to stand to it " (v. 32). "And the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem (summer) did according to the covenant of God " 
(spring equinox). In coming to this point Josiah took away 
the abominations (evils of winter) which afflicted the people. 

On the 14th day of the first month, and the 18th year 
(month) of his reign, Josiah kept a passover, and such a pass- 

* Huldah, in Hebrew, is a weasel. The name is applied to Virgo, because, like the 
weasel, she, rising head-first, puts forth her head as from a hole. The east was also some- 
times typified by a serpent creeping from a hole; the west, by a serpent entering a hole 
(Sir G. C. Lewis' 1 And. AsL, p. 180). The reason of the symbol is obvious: the snake 
leaves his winter quarters in spring; returns to them in autumn. 



420 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

over — " there was no passover like to that kept in Israel (in 
Israel," mark that, for the fall equinox cut Israel in halves) 
"from the days of Samuel" (2 Chron. xxxv, 18). Air that 
Conaniah (set-up-Sun), Shamaiah (hearing-Sun), Nathaniel 
(giving-Ram), Hashabiah (regarding-Sun), Jeiel (snatched- 
Ram = Aries setting), and Jozabad (bestowed of God = the 
crops), gave the Levites (the year), was used up in this pass- 
over offering (v. 9). 

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, i. e., 
at the end of summer, Neeho (smiter) came up to fight against 
Carchemish by Euphrates (fall equinox). Josiah went out to 
meet him. Necho plead off, said he had not come to fight 
him, but " the house of my war " (marginal reading, which is 
the correct one). God, said he, is with rne (and so he was, for 
Aries was just setting), and commanded me to make haste (Sun 
appears to move faster in the southern hemisphere) ; forbear 
thee, then, to meddle with God, lest he destroy thee (v. 21). 
But Josiah wouldn't forbear; he must have a tussle with 
Necho (the bully) in the valley of Megiddo (winter, where 
Aries is). So he disguised himself (passed the equinox) and 
went for Necho (the cold weather). His fight was soon over, 
for Neeho's archers wounded him (v. 23), after which he was 
taken to (lower) Jerusalem, where he languished, died, and was 
buried. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah ; the singing men 
and singing women also lamented for him "to this day." 
Josiah was taken from Megiddo — dead (2 Kings xxiii, 30). 

It has been seen that Josiah was wounded in the valley of 
Megiddo, whence he was taken to (lower) Jerusalem, or winter 
solstice, where he died. After which 

Jehoahaz, 

or the zodiacal Sun, filled his place for three months. This 
would take him to the spring equinox. Pharaoh-Necho 
(Aquarius) then put him in bonds at Riblah (fertility = Earth 
in the second month, April (Sun in Taurus), in the land of 
Hamath (warm spring=latter rain), for " he reigned in Jeru- 
salem " (summer, — see marginal reading). Pharaoh-Necho 
(Moses) next made Eliakim (elevated-Ram = Aries in his zenith) 



JEHOSHAPHAT — ZEDEKIAH. 421 

king in Josiah's stead, and turned his name to Jehoiakim 
(high-Sun = Sun at summer solstice), and took Jehoahaz away. 



Jehoiakim 



from the time of his elevation, did evil in the sight of the 
Lord (2 Chron. xxxvi, 5). Nebuchadnezzar, king of Egypt 
(winter), came and bound Jehoiakim in chains and carried him 
off to Babylon (winter), whither Necho had taken his brother 
Jehoahaz, but a short time before. Pharaoh (winter) fined Je- 
hoiakim (summer) in a large sum (a hundreds talents of silver 
and a talent of gold), enough to support him and his family 
until the next spring, when Jehoiachin, his son, was put upon 
the throne. Jehoiakim served Nebuchadnezzar three years 
(months), after which he rebelled, i. e., began his north declina- 
tion (2 Kings xxiv, 1). Three months later, i. e., after he had 
turned the winter solstice, he met the Chaldees (people of the 
division = spring equinox). Here Jehoiachim slept with his 
fathers. 

Jehoiachin 

succeeded his father. Like his father, he did evil in the eyes 
of the Lord, and shared the same fate. 

Zedekiah 

(righteous-Sun = Sun at summer solstice) followed Jehoiakim 
to the throne. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, whereby 
he was cast out of the Lord's presence, of course into Egypt 
or Babylon. Here he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who 
drove him away and compelled him to swear {seven) by God 
(Aries during summer) ; " but he (Zedekiah) stiffened his neck 
from turning unto the Lord God of Israel," i. e., he wouldn't 
turn back, but set his face toward winter, where he carried all 
vessels (constellations) of the house of the Lord (summer) 
away down to Babylon (the Sun-ram's gate= winter solstice), 
where " the land enjoyed her sabbaths ; for as long as she lay 
desolate, she kept sabbath " (2 Chrou. xxxvi, 21). Mark 



422 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

that: — "As long as she lay desolate (deprived of the Sun's 
heat) she kept sabbath." Winter, the true sabbath, was insti- 
tuted by God (El, not Elohim), but it has been greatly per- 
verted by interested parties, and greatly to the detriment of 
the people. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

EZRA. 

THE book of Ezra is said to be " a continuation of the book 
of Chronicles " (Smith's Bib. Diet.). Of this there can be no 
dispute, especially as regards the last chapter of 2 Chronicles. 

The word Ezra means " help," being the same precisely as 
Ezer. By metonymy, or change of name, it is here made to 
signify the year, of the phenomena of which, this book treats. 

Chap. i. Here it is related that in the first year (month) 
of Cyrus (Persian for Sun), king of Persia (fire-land = summer), 
the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah (high-Sun = summer sol- 
stice), stirred up Cyrus to say : The Lord God of Heaven 
(Sun at summer solstice), having given me all the kingdoms of 
the earth (Satan offered the same to our Savior, — Mat. iv, 8, 9), 
hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is 
in Judah, i. e., summer, the house of the Sun. 

The chief (head, in the Hebrew) of the fathers of Judah and 
Benjamin (the two saved tribes), together with the priests and 
Levites, had raised up (Sun in Aries, Earth in Libra) " to all 
the city " * (summer) of the Gods (Elohim), his spirit, that it 
might go up (to the summer solstice) and build the house of 
the Lord, which is in Jerusalem (the summer solstice), — v. 5. 
Cyrus (the Sun) brought forth by the hand of Mithredath 
(giving-Sun) all the golden vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar 
("who protects the youth " f=Ganymede=boy-Sun = Sun at 
winter solstice) had carried away with him to Babylon (win- 
ter) and numbered to Sheshbazzar=Zerubbabel (Sun rising in 

* The word ir=city, is wholly ignored in our common translation. The root of ir, 
signifies to wake up, to be warm or hot ; hence the noun means summer. 

+ This interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar may be found in Sir G. Rawlinson's Five 
Monarchies, vol. iii, p. 80. Although near enough for my purpose, I think there is a much 
better and more significant etymology of this name :— Neba=& prophet ; chad=& bucket, 
and a2e/*=store, i. e., The prophet or prince of the sfore-&wc£e£=Aquarius=Mosea. 



424 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBEE. 

Aries). Zerubbabel brought them up from Babylon with them 
of the " transportation," i. e., with those passing through the 
winter, and gave them over for the building of the Lord's 
house = summer. 

Chap. ii. All the men, women, children, horses, asses, 
camels, etc., i. e., the whole animal world, came from the win- 
ter into the summer hemisphere. The chiefs of the fathers 
(summer months) gave according to their ability for the Lord's 
house. The Nethinim (productive months) also dwell in the 
cities, and, of course, did their share ; all Israel also. 

Chap. iii. " When the seventh month was come * and the 
children of Israel were in the cities," all the people found 
themselves, as one man, at Jerusalem (summer solstice). 
Jeshua (Joshua= Jesus) was there with them. He was the 
son of Jozadak (Just-Sun = Sun in Aries). He came up with 
the priests (cardinal points), and Zerubbabel, the son of Sheal- 
tiel (Sheal='Ke\\, and El= Aries, i. e., Hell-ram = Aries in win- 
ter), and builded the altar of the God of Israel (Aries in his 
zenith at the summer solstice), to offer burnt offerings thereon, 
as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God " (Deut. 
xii, 11). 

Here it should be noted that mizbah, translated "altar" 
means " the place of slaughter," i. e., the place where the con- 
stellations begin their descent into the west, and also where 
the days begin to grow shorter; alah rendered burnt offering, 
simply means to go up. The meaning I understand is this :- — 
the Sun having attained his northern tropic, begins from that 
time " to offer burnt offerings" — to shorten the days; for it 
was "from the first day of the seventh month began they to 
offer burnt offerings to the Lord." "But the foundation of the 
temple of the Lord was not yet laid " (v. 6). They built from 
above downward, and laid the foundation at the end of sum- 
mer, — see Tabernacle, supra. 

The people observed the " set feasts of the Lord " (v. 5) at 
the proper time, but the " feast of tabernacles " was held after 
the tabernacle or temple was built, at the end of summer, 
when food was plenty, and before the foundation (winter) was 

* Counting from the winter solstice. 



EZRA. 425 

laid. The text authorizes my translation ; besides Solomon 
built the Lord's house in the seven months of summer ; but 
he was thirteen months, or one year, in building his own. 
Again, summer, the Lord's house, with the ancients in their 
year, came before winter, or Satan's house, which was always, 
and is still, the foundation of the Lord's house. At this feast, 
" all sang together by course," in praising and giving thanks 
to the Lord "because he is good, for his mercy is to the end 
of Israel " (the end of summer), or to the " veiling " (winter), 
— see Fuersfs Ileb. Lex., p. 447. This singing match was 
held by the lucky ones — those who had good crops, or had 
cheated others of theirs ; for it must not be forgotten that 
" many ancient (old) men wept with a loud voice " (v. 12). 
However, the " loud shout " of these, it seems, stifled the 
weeping of the old and infirm, as at the present day. 

Chap. iv. At this stage (fall equinox) of their proceedings, 
the adversaries (winter constellations) of Judah and Benjamin, 
having heard that they (the summer constellations) had built 
the temple of the Lord (summer), proposed " to Zerubbabel, 
and the chief of the fathers," to build with them (v. 2). Being- 
refused, they (the winter constellations) weakened the hands of 
Judah and Benjamin, and stopped their building. Not only 
this, but they hired counselors against them to frustrate their 
purpose all the days of Cyrus, i. e., during the winter. They 
even brought their accusation before Ahasuerus (Lion-king = 
Leo = summer), in the beginning of his reign, i. e., winter lasted 
until the beginning of summer. In the days of Artaxerxes 
(the opposite of Xerxes, or the pseudo-Smerdis= winter), all 
the parties, Bishlam (son of peace), Mithredath (treasurer^ 
winter), Tabeel (good ram), Rehum (compassion), and Shimshai 
(my Sun), with their companions, and the rest of the nations, 
whom the great and noble Asnapper (treasurer= Joseph) brought 
over on this side the river (the equator), and set in Samaria 
(winter), joined together in a letter to Artaxerxes, the purport 
of which here follows: "The Jews, which came from thee to 
us, are now building the rebellious and bad city (winter), hav- 
ing already joined the foundations (winter solstice). Now be 
it known unto the king that if this city be builded again, then 



426 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

they will not pay toll, tribute, or custom (there will be no 
crops), and the king's revenue {strength^ — marginal reading) 
will be endangered. Now, therefore, as we have maintenance 
from the king's (the Sun's) palace, we could not see the king's 
dishonor, hence have we certified the king," etc. This letter 
" was written in the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in the 
Syrian tongue " (v. 7). It was ! Suppose I were to address 
my reader, who understands no language but the English, in 
Greek, and interpret it in Greek, how much the wiser would 
he be for it? The thing is a gross absurdity upon its face ; yet 
theologians gulp it down, not doubting but all is right. The 
meaning of the text is, that the Jews — the summer months — 
passing away in succession, winter came on. This passing in 
turn brought spring= Syria, which having a language under- 
stood by all, interprets itself — is understood b}^ all. 

Artaxerxes answered Rehum and Shimshai, saying: "This 
city (winter) of old time hath made insurrection against kings," 
etc. (v. 19) ; therefore, cause these men (the winter months) to 
cease building until they have another commandment froiri me 
(v. 21), i. e., until the next winter. Then Kehum and Shim- 
shai went up (from Syria=spring) to Jerusalem, unto the Jews, 
i. e., summer followed winter, and made them (the winter 
months) " to cease by force and power."* The work (of winter) 
ceased accordingly unto, or at the " second year," says our 
deceptive translation, of the reign of Darius (Savior=Sun), 
king of Persia (the summer). The word here translated " year " 
is turtin,\ or turin—oxen. The meaning of the original text, 
therefore, seems to be that winter ceased at or in the " second " 
of the spring months, the very month in which Noah left the 
ark. The idea of year is not in the word turtin. 

Chaps, v and vi. In the four preceding chapters of this 
book, we have an account, as just shown, of the building of the 
temple of the Lord ; or in other words, of summer, as the work 
ceased at the fall equinox. True, the adversaries of Judah and 

* Rawlinson (Five Mon., vol. iii, p. 403) thinks that the work was stopped by the 
pseudo or false Smerdis. He is right; for the true Smerdis (splendor) was the summer 
Sun. The false=the winter Sun. It is really amusing to see learned men striving to con- 
vert these myths into veritable history. 

t See ParTchursVs Heb. Lex., p. 796. 



EZRA. 427 

Benjamin sued for a copartnership in the work, but they were 
refused ; and though they came on, their work wasn't recog- 
nized as a part of summer. 

In these two chapters we shall find a description of the 
building of Solomon's palace, or, of the phenomena of the year. 
The writer begins at the usual starting point — the spring equi- 
nox, where the year began — and ends his piece at the same 
point. Haggai (Sun at the feast of the tabernacles = fall equi- 
nox) and Zechariah (remembering Sun=:spring equinox), the 
son of Iddo (returning Sun = winter solstice), i. e., the two equi- 
noxes, first prophesy, after which, Zerubbabel (spring Sun), the 
son of Shealtiel (Aries in winter), and Jeshua (Savior = Joshua 
= Jesus) began to build the house of God* (the year), which is 
at, not in, Jerusalem (summer), where the year began and 
ended = the spring equinox. God's prophets helped them 

Here (at the spring equinox) they were met by Tatnai and 
Shethar-boznai (the winter and summer Sun), and their com- 
panions, who attempted, like the adversaries of Judah and 
Benjamin, to interrupt their work, asking, " who commanded 
you to build this house ? " (v. 3). They didn't stop the work, 
however, for the " eye of their God (i. e., of the year God) was 
upon the elders of the Jews " (Aries during winter). Hence 
this indirect answer : " We are the servants of the God of 
heaven and earth (summer and winter, or the year), and build 
this house that was builded many years ago, which a great king 
of Israel (Solomon) builded and set up, v but which the God of 
heaven (summer, not the God of the year), provoked by our 
fathers, gave over (Aries setting in the fall) to Nebuchadnez- 
zar (Sun in winter), king of Babylon (winter), who destroyed 
it. But Cyrus (the Sun), king of Babylon (winter) and also of 
Persia (summer), in his first year, decreed that " we should build 
this house of God (the year), directing at the same time that 
the gold and silver (spring and summer) which were carried 
off to Babylon (winter should be returned to Sheshbazzar (the 
summer Sun) to be used in its adornment " (v. 14). 

* Here we have a different God from any hitherto — a kind of hermaphrodite God, in 
the word eloha, " which is not spoken of Jehovah specially, but of every God " (Fi/ersVs 
Heb. Lex., p. 93). 



428 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Putting this answer into the form of a petition, Tatnai 
and his friends, " on this side the river" presented it to king- 
Darius (the S".n), asking him to hunt up this alleged decree. 
This being done, the decree was found to set forth the exact 
dimensions of "the house of God." The height and breadth 
(and probably the length) were to be sixty cubits each. Each 
cubit being equal to 2° of the Sun's ecliptic, as heretofore 
shown, the sum would be 360°, the number of degrees in a 
circle, or the year. " The three rows (seasons of four months 
each) of great stones (vi, 4), and a row of new timber," proba- 
bly had reference to the same thing. Such was the nature of the 
decree. Of course, the prayer of the petitioners was denied ; 
and Tatnai and his friends " beyond the river " were ordered 
off — " be ye far thence " (v. 6). " Let the work of this house 
of God alone" (v. 7), — Let's have but one winter in the same 
year. 

This intermeddling of Tatnai, etc., who were beyond the 
river (the winter constellations which had just passed the Sun) 
being thus happily got rid of, the builders of the house of God 
(the year) went on prosperously, and finished their work on the 
third day of the month Adar, the twelfth and last month of 
the year. Then followed its dedication, when rams and bul- 
locks (Aries and Taurus) were offered in immense profusion 
to the Lord. Next the priests (months) were set in their di- 
visions, and the Levites (bundles of months=the seasons), in 
their courses, for the service of their God which is at Jerusalem 
(spring equinox). The children of the captivity (winter) now 
kept the passover, the feast of unleavened bread, with joy ; for 
the Lord God had procured them an ally in the king of As- 
syria to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of 
God — the God of Israel. Assyria represented the increments 
of the lengthening days at this, the spring season of the year. 

Chap. vii. The temple of God, or the year, being com- 
pleted, the next thing to be done was to furnish and adorn it. 
For this purpose Artaxerxes (winter Sun) commissioned Ezra 
to carry all his gold and silver, and all that could be found in 
the province of Babylon, with the free-will offering of the peo- 
ple, up to Jerusalem. With this money, bullocks and rams 



EZRA. 429 

{Aries and Taurus, then rising) and whatsoever was needful 
for the house of God, were bought. 

Chap. viii. Accordingly, Ezra (v. 15) gathered his friends 
together to the river (Sun's ecliptic) that runs to Ahava (spring 
equinox). Here he found none of the sons of Le T d (none of 
the seasons, for it was mid-winter), i. e., he was not at the end 
of winter. However, after three days (months) he sent for 
Eliezer (helping-Ram), Ariel (lion-Earn), Shemaiah (Sun-hears), 
Elnathan (giving-Ram), Zechariah (Sun-remembers) ,and Me- 
shallum (peace) — all genii of summer. These come, he " sent 
to Casiphia (place of silver) to Iddo (the one=Aries), chief of 
the place, and the Nethinim (the givers= summer months) re- 
questing them to bring ministers (the summer months) for the 
house of our Gods" (v. 17). Sherebiah (Sun's heat) and 
Hashabiah (Sun regards, or looks down upon) were sent, with 
others. 

Ezra then proclaimed a fast (Lent), wmich observed, he chose 
Sherebiah (Sun's heat) and Hashabiah (regarding Sun) and ten 
others of the chief priests (= the twelvemonths), among whom 
he divided " the silver and the gold " (sun's light). All being 
now ready, they leave the river Ahava on the 12th day of the 
first month, to go to Jerusalem (summer solstice). On the 
fourth day after their arrival, Meremoth (heigh ts= summer sol- 
stice) weighed the silver, the gold, etc. (the sunshine), and all the 
weight was written down at that time (v. 34). Uriah (Sun's 
heat), Eleazar (Aries at his zenith), Phinehas (brazen month), 
Jozabad (Sun bestows), and Noadiah (Sun convenes), the son of 
Binui (the builder), Levites, w r ere present to witness the weigh- 
ing. After this, " they furthered the people, and the house of 
the Gods" (Elohim, or summer). 

Chap. ix. It was now (fall equinox) discovered to Ezra that 
not only the people, but the priests and Levites, to the great 
scandal of the Jews (summer months), had, in their peregrina- 
tions, taken for themselves and sons, the daughters of the 
people with whom they sojourned (Virgo in winter); " so that 
the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of 
those (winter) lands ! " This was a most shocking thing, and 
Ezra was so enraged about it, that he tore his shirt, plucked 



430 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

out his hair and beard, and sat down astonied, in desolation, 
for it was mid-winter (v. 3). 

Ezra (Sun or Earth, it matters not which), as in duty bound, 
now fell upon his marrow bones before his God (Aeries on his 
meridian), confessed the sins of his people, and told God how 
great they were; that for " our iniquities (Sun's S. declination) 
have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the 
hands of the kings of the land .(winter), to the sword (Sun), to 
captivity, and to a spoil ;" and that notwithstanding all this, 
"he had left us a small chance for escape — a nail in his holy 
place (winter solstice) — to give us a little reviving (increase in 
the length of the days) in our bondage " (v. 8). " For we are 
(not were, which is a false interpolation) bondmen, yet our 
Gods (Aries — always in the zodiac) have not forsaken us in our 
bondage ; " they have given us "a reviving; " we have passed 
the Rubicon and will soon set up the house of our Gods and 
repair the desolations thereof, i. e., we have passed the shortest 
day, spring will soon come, when the vegetation will revive 
(v.' 9). 

" O our Gods," w T e know not what to say, for ye did tell us 
by your prophets (the signs of the seasons) that the land to 
which we w r ere going, was an unclean land, a land filled from 
one end to the other, with the fllthiness and abominations of 
its people, etc. (vv. 11, 12); yet we heeded you not. But we 
have come off with less punishment than our iniquities de- 
served (v. 13). Next time we may be wholly consumed by 
your anger (v. 14). But never mind ; we are escaped " as it is 
this day — behold, we are before you in our trespasses" (v. 15), 
i. e., they were just past their southern tropic. 

Chap. x. Such was Ezra's prayer, and a very sensible 
one, too, it was ; for he prayed having " faith " ; knowing that 
the spring which he asked for would certainly come " at the 
set time." He was greatly interested, for "a very great con- 
gregation of men, women and children had assembled unto him, 
and they wept sore" — it was the rainy season. 

Shechaniah (let-down Sun = Sun at winter tropic), the son 
of Jehiel (living-Ram = Aries on his meridian), one of the sons 
of Elam (Shem's eldest son), came forward, confessed his sins, 



EZRA. 431 

and said to Ezra, we have trespassed, i. e., passed the fall equi- 
nox, and have taken strange wives (Yirgo in winter). Now, 
therefore, says he, let us make a covenant with our Gods, 
i.e., let the Sun enter Aries — let spring come! What for? 
Why, that we may "put away all these wives and such as are 
born of them " — the cold winter days. "And let it be done 
according to the law." 

"Arise, Ezra, get up, for this matter belongeth to thee," 
continued Shechaniah (v. 4). Then Ezra, having sworn his 
attendants, arose and went into the temple of Johanan (merci- 
ful-Sun), the son of Eliashib (returning-Ram = Aries past his 
meridian). The time, then, was mid-winter = the ninth month. 
So Ezra made proclamation, that " all the children of the 
captivity " should gather unto Jerusalem (the spring equinox) 
within three days (months). Judah and Benjamin (Aries and 
Libra inclusive = seven months) obeyed the summons (v. 9). 
Before starting they confessed their sins (passed the winter 
solstice), and promised to put away their strange wives, i. e., to 
leave Yirgo, which sets at the spring equinox. But, said they, 
" it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand with- 
out " (it was the rainy season), nor " is it the work of a day or 
two " (v. 13). 

Jonathan (gift-of-the-Sun=food), the son of Asahel (fruit- 
ful-Ram = Aries in summer), and Jahaziah (the Sun sees), the 
son of Tikvah (a line=: Sun's ecliptic) were selected to oversee 
the work (v. 15). On the first day of the tenth month, Ezra 
and his assistants sat down to examine the matter. And on 
the first day of the first month (March), they "made an end 
with all the men that had taken strange wives" (v. 17), i. e., 
they hung them, perhaps. — Oh no, no, they didn't, for here 
follows a long list of them. Pleading guilty, they offered a 
Ram of the flock (Aries with the Sun) for a trespass offering, 
and were thus cleansed from their sins (v. 18). 



CHAPTER XXII. 

NEHEM1AH. 

"TT7E find Nehemiah (lamenting Sun = Sun in winter), the 
▼ V son of Hachaliah (flashing, or summer Sun) in the 
month Chisleu (the ninth month of the Jews, and answering 
to our month December), in Shushan (lily* = zodiac), the king's 
palace.f 

Being informed by certain men, but more particularly by 
his brother Hanani (mercy = Sun in summer) that "the rem- 
nant of the captivity (Judah and Benjamin = Aries and Libra) 
are in great affliction and reproach " (it was mid-winter). Nehe- 
miah sat down (Sun in his southern tropic) and wept (the 
rainy season) very sore. Like poor Ezra, he prayed, confessing 
his sins (Sun's southern declination) to the Gods of heaven 
before him. Being out of work and in great affliction, and in 
want of food, he accepted the office of cup-bearer to the king 
(Sun in Aquarius), and is thus identified as the Ganymede, or 
joy-promoter of the pagan mythology. 

Chap. ii. In the month Nisan (March) Nehemiah, hav- 
ing a sickly look, brought the accustomed wine before the king 
(four cups, one for each spring month =the passover wine). 
The king observing his sad countenance, inquired its cause, 
concluding at the same time: "This is nothing else but sor- 
row of heart," to which Nehemiah assented, saying : " Why 
should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of 
my father's sepulchre lieth waste?" To comtort him, the king 
gave Nehemiah leave " to build it." Clothed with the king's 
authority by letters to Asaph (collector), he proceeded onward 

* The lily, having three petals, and thus containing of itself the idea of a Trinity, or 
of a Three joined in one, or of the year of three seasons, is a beautiful emblem of the 
zodiac. 

+ Nehemiah was born at Babylon (the winter solstice), during the captivity, i. e., at 
mid-winter (Tlee* 1 Cyclopaedia^ in article Nehemiah\ 



NEHEHIAH. 



433 



accompanied by the king's guard. When he came to the gov- 
ernors over the river (spring equinox), he found, as did Ezra 
before him, that they (Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah=tke 
two solstices) were exceedingly aggrieved, because he sought 
the welfare of the children of Israel (i. e., because their rule 
was about to end). How T ever, Nehemiah w T ent to Jerusalem, 
where he tarried three days (Ezra viii, 32). Leaving Jerusalem 
at the end of three days (months), in the night, by the valley 
gate (fall equinox), which is before the dragon well (former 
rain, Sun in Scorpio), he went " to the dung port " (stable of 
Augeas), where he viewed the broken-down walls of the holy 
city (it was winter, not summer). Thence he passed the foun- 
tain gate (winter solstice). Here there was no room "for the 
beast that was under him (Capricorn) to pass " (the constella- 
tions appear to go in a direction contrary to that of the Sun). 
In verse 15, it was by the brook (Kedron, 2 Sam. xv, 23= the 
Styx, or dread, of the pagan mythology) that he viewed the 
ruined walls. Then turning by the valley gate (winter sol- 
stice), he returned before the rulers knew where he had been, 
or what he had done (v. 16). Having, on his return, informed 
the Jews that the hand of the Gods (Sun in Aries) was upon 
him; they said: "Let us rise up and build" (v. 18). But 
when Sanballat, the Ho- 
ronite (winter Sun) and 
Tobiah (the good or sum- 
mer Sun), the servant of 
Sanballat (summer serves 
winter) and Geshem, the 
Arabian (the evening or 
latter rain) heard it, they 
laughed them (the Jews) 
to scorn, and despised us, 
saying : " What would ye 
do? will ye rebel against 
the king? " Xehemiah an- 
swered : " The Gods of 
heaven (Aries during sum- 
mer), they will prosper us : 
28 



plSH GATe 



oi£ 



GATe 




DUNG GATE 
VALLEY GATE OR FOUNT GATE 



434 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

we will rise up and build, but ye (apostates) have no portion, 
nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem " — winter has nothing 
to do but to eat up the surplus of the summer crop. 

To aid in understanding this and the following chapter, 
the diagram on the previous page is presented. 

Chap. iii. Here follow "the names and order of them 
that builded the wall": First comes Eliashib (Aries rising at 
the spring equinox). This Dux gregis, jPrinceps zodiaci, leader 
of the flock, and chief priest with his brethren (the other con- 
stellations), built the " sheep gate," or the spring equinox, and 
sanctified it, even unto the Tower of Meali (=100, the number 
of days from the winter solstice), and unto the Tower of 
Hananeel (the time of harvest). Right here, too, and over the 
same ground, the men of Jericho (moon=month) built. Zac- 
cur {membrum virile), the son of Imri (the eloquent one), also 
"builded" here, but it is not said what. If we bear in mind 
that Lady-day comes on the 25th of March, we shall be able to 
guess. The " Fish-gate " (Cetus or Whale in his zenith) was 
built by the sons of Hassenaah (thorns= winter), i. e., by the 
summer constellations. Meremoth (heights = summer solstice), 
the son of Urijah (hot Sun), the son of Koz (a thorn), puts in 
his appearance, together with Meshullam (the ruling Ram= 
Aries in his zenith), the son of Berechiah (blessed Sun), the 
son of Meshezabeel (freed of Aries), and Zadok (the upright = 
summer solstice), the son of Baana (affliction = winter solstice 
— the solstices being the sons of each other alternately, or, as 
in the case of Moses and Aaron, brothers). The Tekoites (tent- 
men the summer constellations) next repaired, " but their 
nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord " (v. 5), — 
of course they didn't. 

Jehoiada (favoring Sun), the son of Paseah (the cripple^ 
Jacob with his dislocated thigh) and Meshullam (ruling Ram= 
Aries in his zenith) the son of Besodeiah (intrusted to the 
Sun= Aries and the Sun in quartile aspect), built the "Old 
gate." In connection with this gate, I remark, we have Uzziel 
(mighty Ram), the son of Hashaiah (dry Sun), besides Rephaiah 
(the healing-Sun = the physician, because the plague ceases its 
ravages at mid-summer), and some others. So far, so good. 



NEHEMIAH. • 435 

Descending from the " Old gate," we approach the " tower 
of the furnaces," or fall equinox, so called because two of the 
four summer months or furnaces are located on each side of it. 
Malchijah (Sun-king), the son of Harim (flat-nose — the Sun is 
so pictured in our almanacs), and Hashub (regarding-Sun=Sun 
in the west, or autumn). Shallum (Lot) and his daughters per- 
form their part next (v. 12). Hanun (grace=food) and the 
people of Zanoah (the marsh, or bog=winter) built the " valley 
gate." Malchiah (Sun-king=Sun in winter solstice), the son 
of Rachab (a band of riders = zodiac), built the " dung-gate" 
(stable of Bethlehem, also the stable of Augeas, which Her- 
cules, in his sixth labor, cleansed by turning a river — Aqua- 
rius — through it). 

The fountain gate (Aquarius) was built by Shallum, the 
son of Col-hozeh (the All-seeing=the Sun), "the ruler of a 
part of Mizpeh " (watch tower). Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk 
(desolation) repaired the last quarter of the circle, by the aid 
of his friends. But here we are at the completion of the cir- 
cle, and only midway of the chapter, with but half the locali- 
ties enumerated. How are we to account for this? James 
Fergusson {Bib. Diet, Art. Jerusalem) supposes, first, that 
there were " two walls of Jerusalem," or, " that the first six- 
teen verses refer to the walls of Jerusalem, while the remain- 
ing sixteen refer to those of the city of David," but prefers the 
last hypothesis as the true solution of the difficulty. 

Now, I am not certain but both are right, for the word 
Jerusalem, or, as it is more properly written in its dual form, 
Jerusalaim, implies a double city, as having reference to the 
two hemispheres, and hence we meet in Nehemiah a double 
description of it. One going in the direction in which I have 
traced it, the other in the opposite direction. This accords 
well with the apparent motion of the Sun and constellations 
with regard to the Earth, which is double, i. e., both forward 
and backward — forward as regards Aries when he leaves the 
Sun, backward as to the Sun when Taurus receives him ; and 
this will account for the two descriptions. So when the half 
year comes around, the two sets of constellations — winter and 
summer — stand on opposite sides of the equator, having the 



436 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" sheep-gate " (spring equinox) and the " prison-gate " (fall 
equinox) at either extremity of summer. This cannot happen 
except at the end of a half revolution of the stars, commencing 
at either equinox. 

This view of the matter is fully confirmed in chap, xii, 
where it is distinctly stated that, after the singers had gathered 
out of the plain country (winter hemisphere) round about 
Jerusalem (winter solstice), where they had builded villages 
(v. 29), and from Netophathi (droppings= winter), and from 
the house of Grilgal (circle=zodiae), out of Geba and Azma- 
veth (strong-deaths winter), and when the priests and Levites 
(months and seasons, both ending at the spring equinox,) had 
purified themselves and the people, i. e., when the Sun having 
passed the month February (purification), clears itself from 
the inconveniences of winter, Nehemiah " appointed two great 
companies of them that gave thanks ". (v. 31) ; one of which 
(the summer constellations) went on the right hand over the 
wall (zodiac) toward the dung-gate (winter solstice), i. e., they 
went from the east to the west. Coming opposite the fountain 
gate (winter solstice) " they went up by the stairs (the degrees 
in the Sun's ecliptic, for the word is the same with the one 
translated ' degrees ' in 2 Kings xx, 9, 10, 11,) of David, even 
unto the water gate eastward," i. e., the water gate, or rainy 
season, then coming on. Meanwhile, Neherniah, the other 
company that gave thanks, following " after them," made the 
opposite half circuit, bringing up with Aries at the prison 
gate (fall equinox), or tower of furnaces, where the Sun (Nehe- 
miah), having left Virgo, is about to enter Libra. "So stood 
the two companies of them that gave . thanks in the house of 
God; both I, and half the rulers with me" (v. 40). The cor- 
rected punctuation of the last clause of this verse, which I have 
ventured upon, and which is the correct one, brings out, with 
the improved translation, the true sense of the Hebrew text. 
In support of this my remark, I will say that the italicized 
words " companies of them that gave" found in vv. 31, 38, 40, 
form no part of the Hebrew text. Being gross interpolations, 
they are well calculated to misdirect the reader. The two 
parties were evidently and truly the Sun (Nehemiah) and the 



NEHEMIAH. 437 

northern or summer zodiacal constellations. Both these setting 
out from the spring equinox, as described in this chapter, 
apparently, move at the same time, but in opposite directions ; 
and both in the space of six months will have made half their 
yearly circuit, as described above. 

Having come to the end of the ingathering, they held the 
annual feast of the tabernacles, and rejoiced greatly, gave 
tithes to the priests, who, though they didn't work, must be 
supported. 

Chap. xiii. This chapter appears to refer to another correc- 
tion of the calendar similar to that of the dial of Ahaz, except 
that the error had not become so great, being, according to the 
marginal chronology, nearly three days. 

Thus Nehemiah (the Sun) found the people profaning the 
sabbath, i. e., doing their work out of season, marrying strange, 
outlandish women — women of Ashdod, Moab and Ammon, 
i. e., the Sun came to the fall equinox .nearly three days before 
leaving Virgo. Hence these three days being over the equi- 
nox, on the winter side, were called strange, or outlandish 
women, such as w T ere David's ten shut-up wives and Solomon's 
300 concubines, both which typify the last ten degrees of Virgo, 
before the correction of the twentieth chaper of 2 Kings. 

Hence, " on this day," when they (the two companies be- 
fore treated of) "stood still in the prison gate" (xii, 39), at 
the fall equinox, and read the law of Moses (Dent, xxiii, 3, 4) 
which prohibits the Ammonites or Moabites from entering the 
congregation of the Gods (Elohim\ or the summer constella- 
tions, counting Aries the first, forever. The true time must be 
kept according to this law. 

Thus the contents, of this book of Nehemiah, though intri- 
cate and difficult to fathom, turn out, like all that precede, to 
be no other than a description of the phenomena of the year. 

" The only description of the ancient city of Jerusalem 
which exists in the Bible (says James Fergusson, the greatest 
of living architects), so extensive in form as to enable us to 
follow it as a topographical description, is that found in the 
book of Nehemiah" (Smith's Bib. Diet, Art. Jerusalem). 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ESTHER. 

" ALL hail to the 'great Esther!' She was really called 
-j0\. Myrtle, for Hadascha is in Hebrew the myrtle. That 
Esther is aster has long been generally admitted ; also that 
Xerxes is Ahasuerus. The chronology is equally decisive " 
(Bunsen to Max Miiller, Chips, vol. iii, p. 418). 

Hadassah, then, is the Hebrew for myrtle. " The Romans 
gave Venus the name of Murtia, from the myrtle, which was 
consecrated to her " (Earner's Myth., vol. ii, p. 333). Yenus, 
then, is the same as Hadassah, or Esther. Astrologically she 
had her fall in Virgo, and hence their relationship. In autumn 
Yirgo rises before the Sun, and it was thence she got the name 
Hadassah (Myrtle), as denoting death, or the end of the 
growth of vegetation — the Myrtle being a funereal tree. In 
the spring Yirgo sets just before the Sun rises, and she is 
thence called the Star — the star of the Savior, or the Sun, as 
denoting life, or the renewal of vegetation. Esther and Ha- 
dassah answer in every respect to Sarai and Hagar, or Yirgo in 
summer and winter. 

Ahasuerus, it is also understood, is the same as Xerxes, 
the u Ruling-eye," or the Sun (Bawl. Herod., vol. iii, p. 462). 
He ruled from India (the east) to Ethiopia (the West), i. e., 
over the summer months. In the third year (month) of his 
reign, having displayed the glorious riches of his kingdom for 
the space of 180 days (six months) he made a feast (that of the 
tabernacles) in Shushan (the year), to which he invited all his 
princes and servants. At this feast, though the drinking was 
done according to the law, it was done " according to every 
man's pleasure" (v. 8, chap. i). Vashti (beauty), the queen, 
also " made a feast for the women." On the seventh and last 



ESTHER. 439 

day of the feast, the king, merry with wine, commanded his 
seven chamberlains (the seven summer months) to bring Vashti, 
the queen, before the king, that he might display her beauties 
( " for she was beautiful to look upon " ), before his princes 
and the people (i, 11). But behold ! the queen, shy of her 
beauty, flatly refused to obey the king's order (Yirgo had just 
left the Sun, and, of course, wouldn't come back). At this 
Ahasuerus got mad — "his anger burned within him" (i, 12), 
and consulted " the wise men which knew the times," as to 
the queen's behavior; it was bad — humiliating, for just then 
the king was like to go into a decline. Due consideration 
having been had, it was determined "that Yashti come no 
more before king: Ahasuerus." It was also decided that " the 
king give her royal estate unto another that is better than 
she " (v. 19). " This pleased the king." The next step was 
to find " the maiden which pleaseth the king, and let her be 
queen instead of Yashti " (ii, 4). This it was not difficult to 
do ; for, it was soon discovered that " a certain Jew," Mordecai 
(the planet Mars) by name, the son of Jair (whom the Sun en- 
lightens=Mars with the Sun), the son of Shimei (the Earth), 
a Benjamite (Mars has his detriment in Libra, i. e., is in opposi- 
tion to the' earth), had just returned from his captivity in 
Babylon (winter), whither Nebuchadnezzar (the winter Sun) 
had taken him, bringing up with him "Hadassah," i. e., Esther 
(v. 7), the daughter of Abihail (father-of-strength = Sun). 
Mordecai, or Mars, is sometimes called Ares or Aries, from his 
astrological connection with that constellation. Mars has his 
" terms " in the constellation Yirgo, hence it is said, Mordecai 
adopted Esther as " his own daughter." Her father and 
mother, the Sun and Moon, died when they entered the winter 
hemisphere. 

Out of many maidens, Esther proved the lucky one — " she 
obtained kindness" of the king (v. 9). Esther had not yet 
shown her people or kindred. This Mordecai charged her not 
to do (being the beginning of spring, the summer constella- 
tions were yet in the lower hemisphere). So Mordecai walked 
every day before the court of the women's house (he being in 
Aries) to know how Esther did, and what would become of 



440 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

her (ii, 11). Having waited for " every maid to go in to king 
Ahasuerus," Esther's turn at length came, and " she was taken 
unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal (winter solstice) in 
the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth (ark months the 
last half of December and first half of January). Here, her 
purification of six months (v. 12) having been completed, she 
was made " queen instead of Yashti." Ahasuerus now made 
a great feast (drinking is the sense of the original, in allusion, 
perhaps, to the rainy season) ; even Esther's feast, and he made 
a rest (marginal reading=a cessation from labor) to the prov- 
inces and gave gifts according to the state of the king's (treas- 
ury). 

When the virgins were met a second time, Mordecai sat in 
the king's gate (spring equinox). Right here, too, in this very 
spot, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan (garden er= sum- 
mer) and Teresh (severity = winter) sought to lay hands on the 
king Ahasuerus. This Mordecai told Esther, who certified 
the king thereof, — Aries was about to rise with the Sun and 
Mars. Of course the king executed them both at once, i. e., 
the ending of the old year, and the beginning of the new year 
expired together. 

Chap. iii. After these things, i. e., after the beginning of 
the new year, Ahasuerus promoted Haman (the planet Mer- 
cury), the son of Hammedatha (" double " = Gemini, wherein is 
Mercury's "day-house"), the Agagite (son of summer), i. e., 
passing Aries, Gemini, etc., Mercury reaches Yirgo (her night- 
house). Here, though in the presence of the king, and highly 
honored by all the king's servants, which were, but not then, 
in the king's gate, Haman perceived that Mordecai (Mars) was 
still in the king's gate (Aries), and did not bow to him — had 
not yet passed the summer solstice. At this Haman was full 
of wrath, i. e., Mercury being with the Sun in Yirgo, the 
weather was still w^arm. Haman, however, scorned to lay 
hands on Mordecai alone. 

Hence the following conjuration in order to destroy the 
entire race of the Jews. In the month Nisan (the first month), 
probably on the 13th (v. 12), " they, " Mordecai and Haman, 
" cast Pur " or lots, i. e., they compared their respective places 



ESTHER. 441 

in the heavens with regard to each other and to the earth, 
u from day to day, and from month to month to the month Adar " 
(v. 7), or, to the first day of the 12th month. Thus, the time 
qf Lent was left out of their reckoning. During the 318 days 
(the number of Abram's servants) remaining, Hainan (Mer- 
cury) found he had made over three revolutions,* while Mor- 
decai (Mars) had made less than half of one — only 318 out of his 
688 days. Hainan had bowed (passed his zenith) repeatedly, 
but Mordecai had not returned the compliment even once ! 
This was extremely mortifying. And poor Hainan complained 
to the king that there were a certain people scattered in all his 
provinces (the zodiac) whose laws differ from those of other 
people. He would advise their destruction, and for this pur- 
pose he would himself contribute 10,000 talents of silver. 
(Mercury has one of his three decanates, or ten faces, as well 
as other essential dignities, in Yirgo, a constellation belonging 
to the summer division of the zodiac, and is, therefore, of the 
silver age. The 10,000 being a multiple of ten, was, doubtless, 
used to deceive the uninitiated.) 

Haman's proposition was agreed to by the king (vv. 10, 11), 
and proclamation thereof was made, the king having given Ha- 
inan his ring (the zodiac) on the 13th day of his (Haman's) first 
month (April, when astrologically, the Sun and Mercury come 
to " terms "), by command of Haman, in the name of the king 
Ahasuerus, sealed with the king's ring, to the governors that 
they shall destroy, kill and cause to perish, all the Jews (the 
four spring constellations), by a certain day, viz., the 13th day 
of the twelfth month, Adar (about the first of March, when the 
six northern constellations are wholly in the southern hemis- 
phere). The posts which carried these orders, were hurried up 
by the king's (Sun's) command, the decree having been " given 
in Shushan, the palace (spring equinox), and the king and Ha- 
man sat down to drink" (Beer-sheba=Sun and Mercury in 
Scorpio) ; but Shushan was perplexed, i. e., the equinoxes had 
changed places, and the spring constellations were going down 
in the west. Thus was Haman's design so far accomplished. 

* The two planets are supposed to start from their respective exaltations, both at the 
same time. Mars from the 28° of Capricorn, and Mercury from the 15° of Virgo. Thus 
Mercury would make about four revolutions before Mars would pass his zenith. 



442 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Chap. iv. Poor Mordecai now went out into the midst of 
"the city" (Mars in Capricorn = his exaltation). Here he 
rent his clothes, put on sackcloth (his winter dress) and cried 
with a bitter cry, for it was doubtless very cold. He remained 
thus humbled until he came before the king's gate (spring 
equinox). Here he found the Jews fasting, weeping and wail- 
ing (it was Lent) ; and " many lay in sackcloth and ashes." As 
Mordecai could not be permitted to enter the king's gate (spring 
equinox) in his sackcloth suit, Esther (Virgo just set), on being 
informed of his condition, kindly sent him raiment, and offered 
to remove his sackcloth, but Mordecai refused to receive it, it 
being too soon (v. 4). Then Esther called for Hatach (Pisces), 
one of the kings chamberlains (winter months), u whom he 
had set before her " (see marginal reading)* By him she sent 
word to Mordecai that "no one could enter into the king (Sun) 
into the inner court (summer) and live, except such to whom 
the king shall hold out the golden scepter, and that she had 
not been called unto the king these thirty days " (v. 11), — Yirgo 
is wholly set when the Sun enters Aries. At this Mordecai 
intimated to Esther that she would fare no better than the rest 
of the Jews. However, Esther kept her temper, and advised 
Mordecai to gather all the Jews to Shushan (spring equinox), 
and fast with them while she and her maidens fasted (Lent). 
So Mordecai did as Esther bid him. 

Chap. v. On the third day (or period of time, perhaps 
the third decern of the month is referred to), we find the king 
and queen in their royal robes opposite each other ; the one on 
his royal throne (Sun's exaltation at the spring equinox), the 
other in the inner court (Yirgo in the dark hemisphere) of the 
king's house. Immediately the king saw her, he extended the 
golden scepter, which he held in his hand. " Esther drew near 
and touched the top of the scepjter " — literally its head. The 
expression is a euphemism for the sexual congress. The root 
of the original (Shabit— scepter) signifying, "to make firm, to 
stand, or to make to stand" (Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 1027). Of 
course the king was in his best mood, and said : " What wilt 
thou, Esther? it shall be given thee even to the half of the 

* Pisces is opposite Virgo. 



ESTHER. 443 

kingdom " (Virgo then possessed the night hemisphere, while 
the Sun, of course, occupied its opposite). Esther barely 
requested the presence of Haman at the banquet (harvest) she 
had just prepared. This was easily granted, for the king and 
Haman come to " terms " from the eighth to the fifteenth degree 
of Taurus (April = the harvest month). We must remember, 
also, that Mercury (Haman), being the God of eloquence, his 
presence would naturally be desired on such occasions. And 
as this festival was closely linked to the passover feast, the cup 
must, according to rule, be passed around four times, the last 
being designated " the cup of blessing " (Smith's Bib. Diet., 
Art. Passover). This being done, of course good cheer and 
hilarity will prevail, as is usual in harvest, when "jokes are 
free." 

Again; at the instance of the king, Esther made another 
request, viz., that Hainan's presence be permitted at the 
banquet "that I shall prepare for the king and Haman " (v. 8), 
alluding to the meeting of the Sun and Mercury in Virgo at 
the end of summer (feast of the ingathering). This was readily 
granted. It is clear that Haman, though the God of eloquence, 
was no voluptuary, as the king doesn't appear to have been in 
the least suspicious of him as regarded his queen, but see anon. 

Haman, being thus favored of the king a second time, went 
forth joyfully and with a glad heart, leaving Mordecai, "who 
stood not up, nor moved for him, in the king's gate" (v. 9). 
At this Haman was full of indignation (Sun's heat). Never- 
theless he restrained himself, went home (his night house 
is in Virgo), and called for his friends (the crops), and Zeresh 
(Virgo at the end of summer), his wife. To them he recounted 
the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children (the num- 
ber of days in his year), and how the king had promoted him ; 
but all these things availed him nothing so long as he- saw 
Mordecai, the Jew, sitting in the king's gate. Zeresh and his 
friends advised a gallows, fifty cubits high, to be erected 
(Mercury's exaltation * is in the middle of Virgo), and that 

* Mars' (Mordecai's) exaltation being in the 28° of Capricorn, he couldn't be hung in 
Virgo, in the middle of which Haman (Mercury) has his exaltation. The 50 cubits, equal 
to 100 degrees of a circle, doubtless refer to the distance (107°) between the two planets at 
their exaltations, the round number being used in place of the true one. 



444 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Mordecai, the king's consent being obtained, be hanged there- 
on. " The thing pleased Haman ; and he caused the gallows 
to be made." 

Chap. vi. On that night (the following winter) could 
not the king sleep (the Sun having no night house, never 
sleeps), so he looked over the records of the chronicles (times) 
and found that Mordecai had saved his (the king's) life in the 
affair of Bigthana and Teresh. "What reward had Mordecai 
received for this? " JSTone, answered the king's servants. "And 
the king said, who is at the king's gate? " Haman. " Let him 
come in," said the king. So in came Haman (time, spring). 

The king wished to know of Haman, " what should be done 
to the man whom the king delighted to honor ? " Haman, 
thinking himself the one alluded to, told the-king according to 
his own desires. The king quickly ordered Haman " to make 
haste — take the apparel and the horse (the Sun), as thou hast 
said, and do so to Mordecai, the Jew (i. e., Mars during the 
four spring months). Haman obeyed the king, and Mordecai 
came again to the king's gate (spring equinox). At the same 
time Haman hasted to his house of mourning (his night-house, 
in Yirgo). Here he related his mishaps to Zeresh, his wife, 
and his friends. They told him : " If Mordecai be of the seed 
of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt 
not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him " 
(v. 13). This was, of course, comforting. However, Haman 
was taken to the banquet that Esther had prepared for him. 
It may be observed, right here, that Mars, astrologically, has 
his fall in Cancer ; Mercury, in Pisces, but because of the 
greater rapidity of Mercury's motion, the latter would reach 
his fall long before the former. Nevertheless, Haman is again 
invited to the queen's banquet. 

Chap. vii. The king and Haman again meet, for the third 
time. As at other times, the king, with his usual asseveration, 
asked Esther to prefer her request. The queen, having made 
her customary preamble, informed the king that herself and 
people were sold " to be destroyed, to be slain, to perish." If 
the selling, said she, had been into bondage, she would have 
held her tongue. " Who is he," shouted the king, " and where 



ESTHER. 445 

is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? " " Here he is " 
answered the queen, " it is this wicked Hainan " (v. 6). Poor 
Haman was dumbfounded — caught in his own trap ; for he 
plainly saw that evil was determined against him by the king ; 
i. e., he would pass from his present " exaltation" onward to 
his " detriment" or where his influence amounted to little, or 
nothing. 

The king, having returned from his palace garden (summer 
solstice), whither he, in his wrath (heat), had retired, found 
Haman on the queen's bed (the first seven degrees in Yirgo 
belong to Mercury, and are called his "terms"). "What!" 
exclaimed the king, " will he force the queen before me in the 
house ? " As the word went out of the king's mouth, they (the 
king and queen) covered Haman 's face, i. e., Mercury went 
between the Sun and Yirgo, and so became invisible to the 
Earth. Harbonah (ass-Sun = Sun in Cancer) in sextile with 
Yirgo, now called the king's attention to the gallows Haman 
had made for Mordecai. " Good," said the king, " hang him 
thereon." They did so, and "the king's wrath was pacified," 
i. e., the hot weather began to moderate. 

Mercury (Haman) comes astrologically to his exaltation in 
the 15° of Yirgo, and is thus hanged. But for spoiling the 
story, he would have hanged before; for he is, of course, thus 
hanged every time he makes the circuit of the Sun. 

Chap. viii. " On that day (What day ? Why, on tne day 
when the planet Mercury reached the 15° of Yirgo) did the 
king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, 
unto queen Esther, and Mordecai came before the king (Sun in 
Pisces). The king's ring was now transferred from Haman to 
Mordecai, who then took charge of the house of Haman, which 
belonged to Esther (v. 2). It must be borne in mind that 
Mars has the last six days of Yirgo for his " terms." He 
receives his " detriment " in Libra, and " faces " with the third 
decan of Pisces. 

Soon Esther spake again before, or opposite to, the king, 
fell down at his feet, etc., i. e., as the Sun entered Aries in the 
east, Yirgo sank below the horizon in the west, and is thus at 
the Sun's feet. Esther now (spring) besought the king to put 



446 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

away the mischief (winter) which Hainan the Agagite (son of 
the flaming one^son of the Sun, because the planet nearest 
to the Sun) had devised against the Jews, the four spring 
months. 

The good king now extended his golden scepter, as afore- 
time, toward Esther, and the queen stood before him (v. 4). 
Renewing her petition, she asked the king to let his order be 
put in writing, " to reverse the letters devised by Hainan," etc., 
(v. 5). The king kindly assented to her request (v. 8). The 
king's scribes were called in, and, on the 23d day of the third 
month, Sivan (Pentecost, reckoning from the 16th of ^N"isan, — 
Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. Pentecost), they wrote out the com- 
mands of Mordecai to the Jews, their lieutenants, etc., from 
India to Ethiopia (from the rising to the setting Sun, including 
the seven summer months) ; 127 provinces, the exact number 
of days of summer yet remaining, counting from the 23d of 
Sivan. 

These most important commands were written in the name 
of the king (Sun), sealed with his ring (ecliptic), and sent by 
posts on horses and mules (v. 9) ; the horses=:the hot days of 
the latter days of summer ; the mules, the cooler of Septem- 
ber. " The camels and } r oung dromedaries " is an interpolation 
of the translators, not being in the original Hebrew. A simi- 
lar corruption of the text may be found at verse 14. 

The purport of the king's decree was that the Jews, the 
world over, should gather together on a certain day, to wit, on 
the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (the eve of St. Valen- 
tine's day), " to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to 
cause to perish " (the language is legal), all that stood in their 
way, "both little ones and women," and spoil them (v. 11). 
The spoiling of the Egyptians again. 

This (literally) infamous decree, being published, Mordecai 
put on a golden crown (came in conjunction with the Sun), 
and Shushan (the new year) rejoiced. " The Jews had light 
and gladness, and joy, and honor" (summer had come). Many 
of the people were converted and became Jews (i. e., shortly 
before they dwelt in winter, but now in summer). 

Chap. ix. Here we have the account of the Jews met 



ESTHEK. 447 

on the designated day (the 13th of Adar); of the lieutenants 
and officers of the king, who helped to smite and slay with the 
sword (Sun) the Jews' enemies (the southern constellations 
which now begin to set while those of summer rise). In Shu- 
shan (the palace = spring) alone they slew 500 men, besides ten 
of Hainan's sons. This was done thus: while Taurus and one- 
third of Gemini were rising, Scorpio and one-third of Sagitta- 
rius were setting. The first third, or decan, of Sagittarius was 
Hainan's ten sons. Scorpio thus answered to the 500 slain 
men. The result of this slaying the king reported to the 
queen (v. 12), and asked further orders. The good queen, now 
eager for the fray, said : " Do to-morrow also according to this 
day's decree, and let ten (others) of Hainan's sons be hanged 
upon the gallows " (v. 13). On the morrow Aquarius would 
be found just past his zenith, where he woulcl hang in the sky. 
The second decan of Aquarius was assigned to Mercur}^ (Hainan). 

In this relation, it must be noted, we are carried back after 
each exploit to the 13th of Adar, as the base of operations, and 
that after each one day more is added. Hence we find the ex- 
pressions, first, the 13th of Adar (v. 1) ; next, the 13th and 
14th of Adar (v. 17), and lastly, the 13th, 14th and 15th of 
Adar (v. 18). The last two, the 14th especially, were to be 
observed annually as feast days, " and the month which was 
turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a 
good day " (v. 22). The 14th, it has already been noticed, is 
St. Valentine's day. On the 15th the Romans held their. Lu- 
jpercalia. With the Greeks, it was the festival of Pan. The 
origin of this feast is lost in the mist of antiquity. 

Thus have I gone over this astrological book of Esther, and 
demonstratively shown beyond all cavil, its true character and 
import. However distasteful my exposition may be to those 
who live by wheedling their dupes; to the truth-seeker it will 
come most acceptable, as leading to truthfulness, honesty, in- 
telligence and independence. 

In order to understand Esther, the reader, besides a com- 
petent knowledge of astronomy, should know something of as- 
trology. Bonn's Lilly's Astrology is probably the best as well 
as the cheapest, costing about one dollar and a half. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

JOB. 

THE name Job (lob) signifies properly " one persecuted " 
(Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 41). Now, of all the planets* visible 
to the naked eye, none are seen accompanied by satellites 
except the Earth, and that with but one — the Moon. The 
Earth, then, is the followed, or persecuted one. Hence I am 
disposed to think that Job is but a name for our planet. How 
well the name fits the history, or rather the romance, contained 
in the book ascribed to Job, will be made to appear in the 
following exposition : 

First, let it be noticed, Job was a man of, or from, Uz (the 
depressed, or sunken land=winter). "Ewald supposes Uz to 
have been the district south of Bashan" (Beth-shan = Sun's 
house= summer). I think he is right. In fact nearly every 
circumstance and name connected with his birth point to the 
southern hemisphere as his primeval home. Job was whole 
{torn) and level (jasher). He also saw the Gods (Elohim= 
Sun in Aries), and eschewed their companion (winter = evil). 
Thus, in coming to the spring equinox, he is both whole and 
level, — whole, because at the end of the year, and level, because 
the day and night are equal in length. 

There were born to Job seven sons (the seven summer 
months) and three daughters (the three seasons of the year). 
Besides these he had an abundance of live-stock and a very 
great household, — in short, he was the greatest of all the men 
of the east. Fearing that his sons, who were feasting in their 

* It may be objected that the ancients did not recognize the Earth as a planet. 
Whether they thought the Earth a planet or not, has nothing to do in this case of Job. 
That the Earth " moves," and is followed by the Moon, around the Sun, are facts not to 
be disputed at this day. The ancients could see as well as the moderns that the Moon 
moves about the Earth; hence the last was called the '•'•persecuted one." Indeed. Job 
himself says God " hangeth the Earth on nothing " (xxvi, 7). 



job. 449 

respective houses, might also be sinning and cursing the Gods 
(Elohim) in their hearts, as doubtless they were, for they were 
in the southern hemisphere, Job rose up early in the morning 
(spring) and offered burnt offerings (the passing months) 
according to the number of them all, i. e., the seven summer 
months passed away each in its turn, and the Sun arrived at 
the end of summer. 

Hence " there was a day when the sons (months) of the 
Gods (ha-Elohim) came to present themselves before the Lord 
(opposite summer), and Satan came also among them" (v. 6). 
And it was right here, on the day above referred to, that that 
ever memorable, but imaginary, colloquy, was had between the 
Lord (Jah veh) and Satan (summer and winter), at the end of 
which " our heavenly father " (summer) yielded up hapless 
Job and his effects iuto the hand of the Evil One (Satan or 
winter). It was right here, too, that Job's sons and daughters 
were eating and drinking (the ingathering feast) in the eldest 
brother's house (Aries, the first of the summer constellations 
just set in the west), while the dread compact between the 
Lord and Satan was being made, by which these innocent 
parties, all unconscious of the evil that awaited them, were 
turned over by the Lord of Heaven into the hand of the 
prince of darkness, or Hell, to be tortured. One by one were 
they given over by man's greatest and best friend into the 
clutches of his greatest and worst enemy, to do with as he 
might! What for ? Why, according to the letter of the lan- 
guage used, to gratify the whim of a booby despot. Nothing 
else. No wonder the poor " afflicted old man," on hearing of 
the manner in which his supposed best friend had disposed of 
his sons and daughters, and, worst of all, all his possessions, 
" arose, rent his mantle and shaved his head (the bare Earth 
in winter) fell down and worshiped," — who ? Why, Satan, 
of course, as the Lord had forsaken him, — and said : " Naked 
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return 
thither.* The Lord (Jupiter 01 ympus= summer) gave and 
the Lord (Jupiter Stygius= winter) hath taken away ; blessed 

*Did Job, as a man, having attained the average stature of a man, " return into his 
old mother's womb?" Nonsense! 

29 



450 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

be the name of the Lord " (v. 21). How apt the description I 
The Earth comes naked from the winter hemisphere, is clothed 
with the crops of summer, is shorn of them on the approach 
of winter, and returns naked thither every year ! " In all this 
Job sinned not, nor charged the Gods foolishly." I am not 
quite sure of that. It is certain that Job did sin with his 
body, i. e., that he erred or wandered far from the path of 
rectitude=the equator, and charged the Gods with his sins, 
but not foolishly — perhaps. 

So much, then, for this first chapter of Job, which, with the 
concluding chapter, some have imagined was written by the 
author of the Pentateuch. This is mere conjecture, however. 
But it matters little when, where or by whom it was written ? 
so that. we get at the gist of it — its true meaning and intent,, 
which, after so many centuries, we are now likely to attain to. 

Chap. ii. In the preceding chapter, Job was only deprived 
of his possessions, not injured in his person. The sons of the 
Gods (summer months) again meet Satan (winter months) in 
the presence of the Lord. The Lord queries Satan as to where 
he had been, Satan replies as before : — " from going to and fro 
in the earth, and up and down in it," i. e., he (the winter con- 
stellations), as he does every year, had passed from the nadir 
up to the zenith, or highest point in the upper hemisphere, and 
back again, — had just returned from his first round with Job, 
and was now ready for his next. 

Job, having stood his first ordeal so remarkably well, the 
Lord was prouder of him than before. Hence frhe second col- 
loquy of the Bright One with his sable antagonist. " Skin for 
skin," replied the latter, " all that a man hath will he give for 
his life" (v. 4). "He is in thine hand, but save his life," was 
the rejoinder of the heavenly Autocrat. Thus given over to 
his arch-enemy, hapless "Job was smitten with sore boils from 
the sole of his foot to the crown of his head " (v. 7). Job was 
now in the greatest affliction. He took a potsherd (a frag- 
ment^ winter= u anything mean and contemptible," — Ileb. 
Zex., p. 349) to scrape himself withal, and sat down among the 
ashes (the remains of the year). 

Mrs. Job was now, for the first and last time, brought upon 



JOB. 451 

the stage. She, sympathizing with her afflicted husband, ex- 
claimed: "Curse the Gods (Elohim) and die." The word 
barak. usually translated "bless," is here rendered "curse," 
hence the discordant opinions as to the correctness of this trans- 
lation. A little reflection will make the thing clear. Gesenius 
says " the language is that of an impious woman " {Heb. Lex., 
p. 160). Of course, then this word "bless" would not be 
likely to receive from Mrs. Job its direct sense, but would be 
used ironically as derisive of Job's piety. The primary sense 
of barak is u to bend the knee" (Heb. Lex., p. 159), and the ad- 
dress to Job should have been, and doubtless was : " bend thy 
knee and die." * Now, at this precise time (fall equinox) 
Yirgo is seen rising heliacally with the Sun, while Aries, in 
conjunction with the Earth, settles below the equator into the 
winter hemisphere, the first (Aries or God) being cursed, while 
the Earth (Job) dies, as it were, but is resurrected and brought 
to life again in the following spring. Job told his wife she 
talked foolishly, and exclaimed : " What ! shall we receive good 
at the hand of the Gods, and shall we not receive evil?" "In 
all this did not Job sin with his lips." The implication is that 
he sinned with some other part — his backside ? 

As no person, however low, debased and afflicted, can be 
without sympathizers, so poor Job had his. Indiiferent ones, 
too, they were. " They came every one from his own place," 
by previous appointment to mourn for him and to comfort 
him ; for misery, it is said, likes company. As true sympa- 
thizers, these three friends sat down with Job seven days, i. e., 
during the period Satan had him in his clutches, without say- 
ing a word. This was well ; had they continued thus Job had 
not fretted so much — perhaps. 

Chap. iii. But pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, bless- 
ing and cursing, alternate as regularly as day and night, or 
summer and winter. Of this truth Job was fully aware : "The 
thing," says he, " which I greatly feared has come upon me." 

* In this last sense of the word baraJc, the propriety of Mrs. Job's address is readily 
seen. Job, or the Earth, was leaving the summer hemisphere, the abode of the Elohim, 
for the winter hemisphere, the abode of the Elim. He bent his knee in coming to his 
southern tropic, to pass the Goat (Capricorn), which represents the knees and died.— See 
the Man in your almanac. 



452 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

" I was not in safety, neither had I rest, yet trouble came " 
(25, 26). Poor Job, once prosperous, rich and happy, was now 
in frightful adversity. This, of course, he had to bear, but how 
well, his deep imprecations inform us. In imitation of his 
great heavenly father (Gen. iii, 17 ; iv, 2), he fell to cursing, 
and in language not the most chaste and select, he cursed the 
day (the 25th December) in which he was born ; nay, he even 
extended his curses to the night (the 25th March) of his con- 
ception : " Let that day be darkness," and " as for that night, 
let darkness fall upon it," said he, and more equally senseless, 
as if anything but darkness could characterize night, and the 
day of his birth be brought back again ! Poor Job's suffer- 
ings must have been exceedingly intense, for " his roarings " 
were poured out like w^ater (v. 24), it being the rainy season. 
It is fit to notice here that the word patient means one who 
suffers, not necessarily one who keeps his temper. Hence a 
sick person is styled & patient, i. e., a sufferer. 

Chaps, iv, v. Job having broken silence, and given vent 
to his grief, his three friends, Eliphaz (the Ram that makes rich 
= Aries during spring), the Temanite (son of the South), Bil- 
dad (wrangler = winter), the Shuhite (son of the pit = winter), 
and Zopher (a sparrow), the Naamathite (son of the pleasant 
land = summer), suppose themselves licensed, although not 
directly addressed by Job, to put in their say-so; each speak- 
ing in the order above named, is answered in turn by Job. 
At the end of the year, let it be remembered, all are present 
together. 

Eliphaz = Spring, begins gently, as if feeling his way, fear- 
ing that Job might be grieved ; " yet who can withhold his 
tongue" (iv, 2)? Though Job had instructed many, and 
strengthened them, he would remind him of his own weak- 
ness in time of trouble (iv, 5). The upright are not cut off; 
only they that plough iniquity — get into winter, perish by 
the blast of the Gods — the autumnal monsoon. None, not 
even the fierce (hot) lion, can withstand this. "In the visions 
of the night (winter) when deep sleep, Adam's sleep) falleth 
on men, a secret (the knowledge of evil) was brought to him, 
and fear came upon him, insomuch that his hair stood up." 



JOB. 453 

Its form he could not perceive, but silence prevailing, he heard 
a voice, saying : " Shall mortal man (the Earth) be more just 
than God " (Eloh— Aries in summer) ? Of course not, " Wrath 
killeth the foolish man," etc. (v. 2). I would therefore advise 
you, Job, to smash through this winter God (El= Aries in 
winter), and commit your cause to the summer Gods {Elohim 
= Aries during summer).* For the Elohim, the summer 
Gods, do great things — give rain upon the earth, raise up the 
low, disappoint the crafty, save the poor, etc. They correct 
and make happy ; " will deliver thee in six troubles, and in 
the seventh, no evil will touch thee ; " for then comes the time 
when Noah left the ark, and winter is gone. After this thou 
shalt become great, and laugh at destruction (winter) and fam- 
ine (scarcity of food). All this Job knew as well as Eliphaz, 
yet he couldn't help pouring out his "roarings, like the 
waters ! " 

Chap. vi. Job speaks in answer to Eliphaz. As the 
poison of the Almighty's arrows was still within him, and 
" the terrors of God (EloK) still set themselves in array against 
him," afflicted Job longed for the day to come when he would 
be " lifted up (see marginal reading) in the balances together," 
i. e., he longed for spring, when the Earth (Job) would come 
in conjunction with the " Balances " (Libra). The afflicted 
should receive the pity of their friends, but Job's brethren had 
dealt deceitfully with him, as a brook filled with ice and snow, 
which, on the return of warm weather, would be dissipated. 
The troops of Tema (the southern, or winter constellations), 
and the company of Sheba (seven summer constellations) were 
confounded (i. e., mixed, part of each being below and part 
above the equator), and in disgrace. "Ye see ray casting- 
down, and are afraid," because in consequence thereof "ye are 
nothing," i. e., when the year ends it is nothing. Have I 
asked aught of you? Not a thing. "Teach me;" show me 
wherein I have erred. Ye cannot do it. 

Words of reproof, though just and forcible, are as wind to 
the desperate, such as I am. Therefore, be content; don't 

* This, my translation of the 8th verse of chapter v, gives the true seuseof the orig- 
inal. I defy its refutation. 



454 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

overwhelm the fatherless (me), and, like fools, dig a pit for 
jour friend ; but return, I pray you, and remove this iniquity, 
— this unevenness of the days, for my righteousness is in it — 
in summer. 

Chap. vii. Job continues — - in consequence of an appoint- 
ed time (fixed law), he is made to possess months of vanity 
(empty, or winter months). During the night (winter) he 
tosses " to and fro " until the dawn, i. e., he (the Earth) goes 
down to, and returns from, the winter solstice to the spring 
equinox. All this time, too, he is clothed with worms (the 
animal world), his skin is broken (the crops are gathered but 
the stubble remains), and his days are as swift as the weaver's 
shuttle (the shortest of the year), and without hope (a crop). 
His life is wind; he that goes into the grave returns not. 
Therefore, Job will open his mouth, and complain : "Am I," 
says he, " a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over 
me?" i. e., is he the Flood that deluges the earth during win- 
ter, or is he the Whale that swallowed Jonah ? Probably both ! 
If I try to sleep, you scare me with dreams, and I would rather 
die than live; for my days are vanity, empty, and I have 
sinned, erred, and got below the equator. Therefore " let me 
alone — let me alone, until I swallow down my spittle" — 
emptiness=the end of the year. Ah ! I am a burden to my- 
self; pardon (lift up) my transgression (fall) and thus take 
away my iniquity (Sun's southern declination). If you don't 
do it, you'll not find me in the mornings spring! 

Chap. viii. Bildad (wrangler=winter) the Shuhite (son 
of the pit=Hell) comes next. Eliphaz (spring) assayed the 
company of Job ; Bildad has it ; for he is the Bel-Adad, or 
the Sun in winter. Bildad extols his God {El). As the 
Almighty (shaddai) don't pervert justice, i. e., as summer pro- 
duces its crop; so God {El, Aries in winter) don't pervert 
judgment, i. e., in the fall the crop of summer is adjudged to 
winter, and winter uses it — don't throw it away. Therefore, 
wouldst thou MacJcen the character of this winter God {El), 
and supplicate the Almighty {shaddai— the lreasts=the sum- 
mer, — v. 5)? Of course he would. Well, if thou wert pure 
and upright, i. e., if it were spring, he (the Almighty, the 



job. 455 

shaddai, the breasts = summer), would awake for thee, and 
make thee prosperous (v. 6). The beginning (of summer) 
would be small, but the latter end should greatly increase. 

The rush cannot grow without mire, nor the flag without 
water (v. 11). Thus it is with all that find {shacah, to find, — 
see Euersfs Heb. Lex., p. 1380) this winter God {El), and the 
hypocrite's (underplayer's) hope shall perish (v. 13). 

God {El) will not cast away the upright, neither will he 
help the wicked, till he fill thy mouth with laughter, etc., i. e., 
until spring comes ; then he will cast thee into summer ! 

Chap. ix. Job answereth Bildad, who having spoken of his 
own knowledge, tells the truth. Job admits the truth of Bil- 
dad's words, but how can a man be just with God (El)1 He 
would not deny the power of the God {El), which " maketh 
Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades, and tne chambers of the 
south " (the winter hemisphere), but he thinks he makes a bad 
use of it ; complains bitterly of his injustice, and with reason, 
too, if his assertions be true, as they undoubtedly are. He not 
only finds fault with God {El) on his own account, but ac- 
cuses him of destroying both "the perfect and the wicked" 
(v. 22) ; says that " if the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh 
at the trials of' the innocent" (v. 23), and that "the earth is 
given into the hand of the wicked " (v. 24). In fine, do what 
he might, good or bad, God {El) w T ould make him suffer — 
would plunge him in the ditch (winter), and his own clothes 
(the dry and withered herbage) would abhor him (v. 31). If 
God {Eloh* = summer Sun) w T ill not withdraw his anger (if 
summer don't come again), " the proud helpers (summer con- 
stellations) do stoop under him" (v. 13), and what can I do? 
My wounds are multiplied without cause (v. 17), and my days 
pass as ships of reeds; as the Eagle (two of the southern 
constellations), that hasteth to her prey (the Eagle rises 
shortly after the winter solstice, and thus is the harbinger of 
spring) 

Oh, that there were a daysman (mediator = spring Sun) 
between us, that might lay his hand- upon us both. He would 

* The words El and Eloh (plural Elohim) are translated indifferently God, and the 
sense of the text is bent to suit the occasion, though the difference in sense is generally 
as readily to be seen as that of the orthography of the two words. 



456 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

remove his rod (the winter half of the ecliptic), and then " he 
would speak and not fear him." 

Chap. x. But my soul is weary of life, and I will speak 
in the bitterness of my soul. Why, O God (Eloh\ contendest 
thou with me ; why despise the work of thine hands, and shine 
upon the counsel of the wicked? "Thou knowest that I am 
not wicked " (v. 7). " Why delightest thou in my affliction ? 
Why hunt me as a fierce lion " (v. 16). Are not my days few 
enough? "Cease, then, and let me alone, that I may take 
comfort a little, ere I go into the land of darkness and the 
shadow of death," where the light is as darkness (v. 22). This 
in answer to Bildad. 

Thus did the wretched but pious Job plead with his un- 
feeling and wicked persecutor, the Lord-God, who, as we have 
seen, delivered him into the hand of the Evil One, for no other 
purpose than to try his power of endurance : " Behold he is in 
thine hand, but save his life," said the Almighty autocrat (ii, 6). 

Chap. xi. Zopher [twittering W=8nmmer), the last of 
the trinity, in the order here named, now has his say. He 
deals wholly in favor of the Eloh, the Ram-Sun, or summer- 
Sun. Why chatter and lie at such a rate? Shame on thee 
Job ! " for thou hast said, My doctrine is pure " (v. 4). " But 
oh that God (EloK) would speak and open his lips against thee " 
(v. 5), i. e., that spring would come ! 

"Canst thou by searching find out God (Eloli)% canst thou 
find out the Almighty {the hreasts— summer) unto perfection," 
i. e., unto the ripening of the crops? He (God, EloK) is high 
as heaven " (of course he is, because he is always in heaven), — 
" deeper than hell." (This also is true, the Earth being nearest 
the Sun in winter). What canst thou know ? The measure 
thereof, i. e., of heaven and hell, or the diameter of the Earth's 
orbit between the solstices, is longer than the Earth, and broader 
than the sea. If he revive and shut off (winter) and gather 
together, i. e., come to the spring equinox, who can hinder him ? 
For, having known vain men, and seen wickedness, will he not 
build himself up again ? i. e., will not summer follow winter? 

Now Job, continues Zopher, if thou wilt put far away 
thine iniquity (South declination), and let not wickedness 



JOB. 457 

dwell in thy tabernacles (months), and stretch out thine hands 
toward God, then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, 
and wilt forget thy misery, remembering it only as waters (the 
rainy season) that have passed away. Then will thy strength 
(the brightness of spring) surpass that of the twilight, or the 
weakness of the Sun's rays in winter. Then will the eyes of 
the wicked fail and thou shalt be secure — none shall make 
thee afraid. 

Chap. xii. Job now answers the three thus: Doubtless 
ye are the people, and wisdom will die with you. Think not 
that I am interior to yon, for when time dies, you know, the 
year with its seasons all go together. You mock (each answers 
to but one-third of the year), and the just man is laughed to 
scorn. Though they provoke God (El), robbers prosper and 
are secure ; God (Eloh) provides for them — a broad hint, But 
go ; consult the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and 
the fishes of the sea, and learn of them the times and the 
seasons. 

With God is strength and wisdom ; the deceived and the 
deceiver are his (v. 16). He makes fools of judges (v. IT) ; 
spoils princes and counselors, treating the former with con- 
tempt (v. 21), tongue-ties the trusty, and stultifies the aged, 
etc., etc. 

Chap. xiii. Job continues : Mine eye hath seen all this, 
therefore look out, my friends. I am not inferior to you ; what 
you know, I know. I would speak to the Almighty (summer), 
and I desire to reason with God (El— winter). But yon, you 
are liars, all physicians of no value (v. 4). Can God {El ) in- 
duce you to speak wickedly and deceitfully ? Aye ! Be care- 
ful ; his dread may fall upon you (v. 11). No, no ! hold your 
peace; let me speak come what will (v. 13). " Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust in him ; but I will maintain my own ways 
before him," i. e., the earth will bear its winter dress of "thorns, 
also and thistles," all the same. " A hypocrite shall not 
come before God (El); " he is with God (El ), not before him. 
Hold, there ; now I am ready (v. 18). Who will plead with 
me? for my tongue must wag, or I die. Only do this — with 
draw thy hand and I will not dread thee (v. 21). 



458 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Tell me, how great are my sins? that I may know my 
transgression (my South declination). Don't hide thy face 
from me as if I were thy enemy. Thou accusest me of bitter 
things (cold weather), and " makest me to possess. the -iniquities 
of my youth (winter), and puttest my feet in the stocks " (win- 
ter solstice.) 

Chap. xiv. We left Job in the last chapter in the pillory, 
the winter solstice. Here we find him meditating apart from 
his friends, on his situation. Though born of a woman (Yirgo, 
as she appears in the eastern horizon at midnight, on the 25th 
of December), says Job, man (Earth) is " short of days " (mar- 
ginal reading) and full of trouble (the hardships of winter). 
He comes forth as a flower (in the spring), and is cut down (to 
the fall equinox) ; he (then) fleeth as a shadow (through the 
winter) and "is not set up," i. e., he (man = the Earth) gets 
down to the w T inter solstice, where we now find Job. He is 
then at the impassable bound, the winter solstice (v. 5). There 
let him rest till he has, as a hireling, fulfilled his task (v. 6) — 
until he returns to the end of the year at the spring equinox. 
Job continues, in illustration : " there is hope of a tree, if it 
be cut down that it will sprout again " (v. 7) : but man wasteth 
and dieth; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? 
Why. as low down as he can get — at the winter solstice (v. 
10). " Man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no 
more." (v. 12). INow let's take a look at the heavens — Time, 
the winter solstice. The Sun rises with Capricorn, and we find 
one-half the summer constellations, or heaven at sunrise, ex- 
tending from the zenith down to the western horizon. Turn 
the zodiacal card until Aries meets the Sun in the east, and all 
the summer constellations will be found in the lower hemi- 
sphere, and the heavens are no more ; while man (the Earth in 
Libra) has risen from the dead=winter ! This is the "set 
time" of the thirteenth verse; which Job so longed for, that he 
was in doubt as to its ever coming. Hence the question : " If 
a man die, shall he live? " — the " again" appended is an in- 
terpolation of the translators. Calling to mind the simile of 
verse seven, Job is reassured, and exclaims: "All the days of 
my appointed time will I wait, till my change come," i. e., 



JOB. 459 

until he can step into his proper place at the equinox of spring. 
Here, then, is the gist of his celebrated passage of scripture, 
by means of which priests have made so much out of their 
ignorant dupes — themselves equally ignorant. 

My transgression, continues Job, is sealed up in a bag the 
winter solstice (v. 17), for now thou numberest my steps (the 
increments of the lengthening days). " Surely thou dost watch 
over my sins " (v. 16). I am glad : " Call and I will answer 
thee " — Earth and Sun in opposition in spring. Thou wilt now 
have a desire — wilt rush to — the work of thine hands. The 
falling-mountain cometh to nought — disappears, and the rock 
(winter) is removed out of his place. 

Job's three friends have now had each his turn with him. 
The next chapter opens with the second round. 

Chap. xv. Eliphaz (the ram that makes rich) again takes his 
turn. " Should a wise man utter vain words, and fill his belly 
with the east wind (the monsoon, then prevailing). Thine 
own mouth condemneth thee — shows thy whereabouts. What 
knoweth thou that we know not — seeing that thy knowledge 
must come from us — the year? With us are the gray-haired, 
and very aged men (the constellations) — much older than thy 
father (the Sun). God's {EVs) influence upon thee is now at 
its minimum. Why is it? Why dost thou curse God {El) 
at such a rate (v. 13)? The man who puts no trust in his 
saints (the summer constellations) is unclean ; the skies are 
not clean in his sight (v. 15). How much more filthy is he 
that drinketh of iniquity as w T ater — gets down on his knees 
in the filthy cistern, winter; and sups from its dirty contents? 
This thou, Job, hast done ! The wicked man (Earth at winter 
solstice) travails in pain all his days ; he believeth not that he 
shall return out of darkness (winter) ; he wanders abroad asking 
for bread, saying, "Where is it?" but finds it not, for wheat 
don't grow in winter. The dark days are upon him, he stretch- 
eth his hand against God {El), and makes for the Amighty 
(Shaddai), while he dwelleth in desolate cities (winter months). 
He will not be rich ; what substance he has will diminish (v. 
29). I am Eliphaz (the Golden Ram), the only rich man among 
us all — the ancient spring of four months produced the bar- 



460 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

vests, and is thus the only rich man among them. Now, Job, 
let's hear thy defense — thy reply. 

Chap. vi. Job : " Miserable comforters are ye all." Your 
words are but the wind. Change places, and " I could heap 
up words against you " (v. 4). But I will not : I would 
strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips 
should assuage your grief (v. 5). Though I speak, or forbear, 
my grief is not allayed (v. 6). God (El) hath made me weary ; 
yea, thou (El) hast desolated my country, i. e., in getting be- 
hind the Earth, hast deprived the Earth of the Sun's summer 
rays (v. T) ; thou hast filled me with wrinkles (Earth in win- 
ter = an old man), and my leanness (lack of fruits, etc.,) witness- 
eth thereunto (v. 8). He (El) teareth me in his wrath, and 
gnasheth his teeth upon me (v. 9). Yes, they (the four spring 
months) have opened their mouth upon me, and smitten me 
upon the cheek reproachfully (winter, — in due time Job will 
turn the other cheek (Mat. v, 19), which will shame them into 
a laugh = spring), and clubbed together against me (v. 10). God 
(El) hath turned me over into the hands of the wicked (win- 
ter). I was at ease (summer), he took ine by the neck (Aries 
sets head first in autumn), shook me to pieces, and set me up 
for his mark (v. 12). I sewed sackcloth (the symbol of winter) 
upon me, and rolled my horn (strength) in the dust, i. e., I got 
down as low as possible (v. 15). My face is foul with weep- 
ing (rainy season), and the shadow of death (winter) is upon 
me (v. 16). 

This is hard, but it is no fault of mine, for I am pure 
(v. 17). " My friends scorn me " (have forsaken me). My 
God (Eloh) carried me unto Satan (El), but neither is to 
blame, for the year is divided between the two; the time will 
come when he will take me to himself again, when I will pros- 
per as before — produce another crop ! 

Chapter xvii. This chapter scarcely differs from the pre- 
ceding one, Job contrasts his former with his present condi- 
tion. He is now eminently unhappy, and like all unfortunates, 
is ever prating of his grief to all who will stop to hear him. 
His answers to his antagonists, thus far, have been lengthy, 
lugubrious, and made up of repetitions of the inconveniences of 



job. 461 

winter. His eye is dim, i. e., the winter days are less bright 
than those of summer. His members are wasted away, be- 
cause of the scarcity of food, for Satan took his all. But men 
will be astonished when the innocent (summer months) shall 
demolish the hypocritical (winter months). 

Come now, says Job, return, for my purposes are broken 
off, i. e., my southern declination is at its end. The night is 
changed into day, the winter solstice is passed, and though the 
days are lengthening, they are still short. If I stop here, Hell 
(s/ieol) is my house = my home, and my bed is everlasting 
night (v. 13). Then I may say to destruction, thou art my 
father, and to the worm (the trodden-doion), thou art my mother 
and my sister (v. 14). Ah ! where, then, will be my hope — 
who shall see it? Our rest will be in the dust together! 

Chap, xviii. Bildad. When will you be done, Job? 
Mark ; then stop, and we will speak. Why count you us 
beasts and vile in your sight (the winter constellations are out- 
lined as animals)? Don't rend in pieces your life so (the short- 
ening days). The wicked shall dwell in darkness with me — 
earth in winter (vv. 5, 6). His strength (productive power) 
shall fail him ; he will go of himself into the snare (v. 8), laid 
in the ground, where terror w r ill seize him (v. 11), and he shall 
be hunger-bitten (v. 12). The first-born of death (Scorpio, the 
first of the winter constellations) will devour his strength 
(v. 13). His courage will fail him, and he will encounter the 
king of terrors (death). "Brimstone (gophrith— the stuff 
Noah used to pitch his ark with) shall be scattered upon his 
habitation " (to keep out the water during the rainy season). 
" His roots (the stubble) shall be dried up beneath, and above 
shall his branch be cut off" (the harvest). His name shall be 
forgotten, and he driven from light (summer) into darkness 
(winter), and chased out of the world (the year will end). 
Such is the house of the wicked and of him that knoweth not 
God (El). He that is " chased out of the world," of course, 
knows neither the summer nor winter God ; the year ends 
with the latter (El). 

Chap. xix. Job is again on hand to receipt for Bildad's 
compliment. "How long will ye vex my soul (life)? These 



462 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ten times (the ten plagues of Egypt, also the ten times Laban 
changed Jacob's wages, etc.) have ye reproached me. If I 
have erred, what is that to you? That's my business. I tell 
you, God (Eloh— Aries in summer) hath overthrown me, and 
got me in his net (v. 6). This is wrong, and I complain (v. 7) ; 
for he hath stripped me of my glory (sunshine), and taken my 
crown (my harvests) from my head. My kinsfolk and family 
have failed, forsaken and forgotten me. They that dwell in 
my house, even my maids (Yirgo), count me a stranger (out- 
sider). 

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my friends. 
Why persecute me as God (El) does (v. 22)? Be satisfied 
with my flesh ! Oh that my grief, my affliction, my sorrow, 
my woe could be uttered even now, and written out fully ! 
Oh that they might be inscribed in a book ! (the art of sprint- 
ing was unknown to the Hebrews). 

I come now to one of the celebrated texts of the Bible, — 
one which is often preached from, and gloated over with the 
greatest unction. It is fitting, therefore, that I give the text 
entire, and make such comments thereon as are calculated to 
set forth its true meaning and intent : — 

" I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand 
at the latter day upon the earth " (v. 25). 

Here goali * is translated " Redeemer." Its true sense is 
that of a liberator. True, it may be translated, and very prop- 
perl y, too, redeemer or mediator, as it has reference to the 
Sun at the spring equinox, the boundary between winter and 
summer. Toward the close of the verse, aharon is rendered 
by "latter." This is wrong. The word is compounded of 
ahar, the last, and on, the Egyptian for Sun. Thus, the mean- 
ing is — the Sun will stand on the last day of the year at the 
spring equinox, upon the over. The word day is interpolated. 

The next verse (v. 26) is supplemental to this, and much 
worse translated. I adopt the translation of Gesenius (Heb. 
Lex. p. 693) as infinitely better : "After they shall have de- 
stroyed my skin," in my flesh shall I see God (jB7tfA=Sun in 
Aries), i. e., the crops having been consumed, I will emerge 

* The English goal, a mark or boundary, is here seen. 



job. 463 

from the winter hemisphere "dreary and desolate" when I 
shall see the Sun in Aries. 

Chap. xx. Zopher. You, Job, check me of my reproach, 
but don't you know, that since man came upon the earth, the 
triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypo- 
crite but for a moment (v. 5) ? Yes, it's even so : " Exalt a 
mortal to the skies" (Earth in summer) and he will come 
down like yourself, Job ; " he will perish like his own dung " 
(v. 7); he shall depart like a dream (v. 8). Once you were in 
high esteem with the Lord (Earth in summer), but where are 
you now — in the Devil's hands ? Ah! Job, though wicked- 
ness be sweet in a man's mouth (v. 12), the tide will at length 
turn against him. You don't see the streaming brooks of 
honey and butter now, that you were accustomed to, do you ? 
They are gone, and Old Nick has got you ! You, Job, have 
forsaken the poor, and have removed a house you didn't 
build (v. 19). Flee you from the iron weapon and bow of 
steel (winter, with the ancients, was the iron age). Terrors 
are upon you ; no wonder. Heaven (i. e., the position of the 
stars) shall reveal your iniquity (deviation from the equator). 
The increase of your house (the crops) shall depart (hasn't the 
Lord given it and you to the devil?) Ah! Job, having left 
the Gods (Elohim= summer), you now possess the portion of 
the wicked man, and the heritage appointed to you by God 
(El = winter)! 

Chap. xxi. Job. Ah ! my friends, listen : let me speak, 
then " mock on." Though my spirit (productive power) is 
troubled, my complaint is not to man. Just look at me, be 
astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth (Harpocrates, 
the god of silence = mid-winter). "The wicked live, become 
old, yea, are mighty in power " (v. 7). Why is it ? " Their 
seed is established in their offspring before their eyes " (v. 8). 
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God 
(Eloh), the summer half of the Sun's ecliptic, upon them 
(v. 9). They prosper, spend their days in wealth, and desire 
not the knowledge of God's (El) ways, saying unto him (the 
winter God), depart from us (vv. 13, 14). They pray not to 
the Lord; indeed, why should they? Though their candle 



464 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

(the Sun) be snuffed a little too much, and they be borne away 
as chaff before the wind, what matters that, so long as God 
(Eloh) layeth up his iniquity for his children. Though in 
various circumstances, all die, and all shall lie down in the 
dust (v. 26). What say ye? I know T your thoughts. Ye 
would ask what becomes of the wicked, if they are not 
reserved to the day of destruction? Who shall declare his 
way to his face, and repay him for what he has done? This 
is your quest. But let me tell you — " He shall be brought to 
the grave and shall remain in the tomb? Isn't this plain 
enough? Ye are fools, and your answers, falsehoods. 

Chap. xxii. Eliphaz, the Temanite. Ah ! Job, you needn't 
try to screen yourself. The Almighty has no pleasure in your 
righteousness, for your wickedness is great. " You have 
stripped the naked of their clothing" (a true Hibernicism), 
withheld w T ater from the thirsty (drouths) ; bread from the 
hungry (scanty crops) ; sent widows away empty, and broken 
the arms of orphans. Indeed, there is no end to your want of 
principle — your depravity and hardness of heart — your ob- 
liquity. Hence, your sudden fear, your blindness (winter), 
and the abundance of waters (rainy season) which covers you. 

Is not God {Eloli) in the height of heaven? Of course he 
is. Behold " the head of the stars," for it is high (—Aries on 
his meridian at mid-winter). Yet thou sayest : How doth God 
(El) know? Can he judge through the dark cloud f I tell 
you, Yea ; God (Aries) walketh in the circuit of heaven. 

Dost thou remember the fate of the wicked of olden time, 
w T ho said unto God (El= Aries in winter) : " Depart from us" 
(go below) ; "how they were overflown with a flood " (that of 
Noah) ? Let me advise thee : " Acquaint now thyself with the 
Gods (Elohim), and be at peace. Put away thine iniquity (the 
short days), return to the Almighty (summer), and he will 
build thee up. Then shalt thou heap up the gold of Ophir 
(summer crops), as the stones of the brooks. Thou shalt have 
the Almighty (summer) for thy defense, and shalt delight in 
him, lifting thy eyes up to God (Eloh)" 

Chap, xxiii. Job. Oh, how I suffer ! cold, oh so cold ! 
Oh that I could find God (Eloh) ! how gladly would I order 



job. 465 

myself before him (Earth in Libra, and before Aries). Thus 
he would put strength in me. Once there, and I, the right- 
eous, might dispute with God (EloE) ; but no ! I cannot 
find him. " He worketh on the left hand " (v. 9), and hideth 
himself in the south (God came from Teman=south, Hab. iii, 
3), and I cannot see him. However, he knows my way, and 
directs my steps, i. e., he takes me to himself in summer, and 
gives me over to Satan in winter ; and I decline not his direc- 
tion. Having tried me, I shall come forth in the spring as 
gold (the gold of Ophir=the summer crops). He is of one 
mind, and varies not ; he does as he pleases, and when I con- 
sider, I fear him. 

Chap. xxiv. Job continues. But why, my friends, do you 
(priests) who know God, see his (the summer) days? Seeing 
you have accused me so outrageously, let me quiz you : How 
is it, my friends, that you remove the landmarks (thus chang- 
ing the seasons), bear away the flocks, drive off the ass of the 
fatherless, and take the widow's ox for a pledge (tithes) ? Why 
do you turn the needy out of doors, cause the naked to lodge 
without clothing, — taking theirs to cover yourselves ; why 
pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take the sheaf from 
the hungry ? Yes, ye priests, you rob those who make oil 
within their doors, tread their own wine-presses, and yet suffer 
thirst. For you, men groan, and the soul of the oppressed crieth 
out ; yet, your word for it, God (Eloh) lays not folly to you ! 
Oh, no ! no ! ! You rebel against labor, choosing a life of 
laziness and uselessness, at the expense of your poor neighbors. 
Oh, shame, where is thy blush ? Ah, priest, priest, look to 
thyself! — 

" Whether thy trade is falsehood, and thy lusts 
Deep wallow in the earnings of the poor. ' ' 

Yet more : the murderer (I mean no wrong) rises with the 
light of morn, and kills the poor and needy; the adulterer 
(often a priest) waits for the darkness when the thief thrives. 
Both spot houses during the day, and rob them at night. Infi- 
nite is the number of your deviltries, that I might name, but 
enough. Are not these that are already named, true? If not, 
call me " a liar, and make my speech nothing worth " (v. 25). 
30 



466 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Chap. xxv. Bildad here assays an answer to Job, but is 
evidently overwhelmed by the foregoing, and after a feeble 
effort subsides, and the trialogue ends. 

In taking leave of Job's three friends, I will say that the 
ancients had many threes or trinities. They are often met 
with in all their sacred writings, always sacred, i. e., secret, or 
such as concealed some physical truth at bottom. The first 
met with in the Bible is Noah's three sons, which I have 
proved to be the three seasons Of the ancients; the next were 
Nahor, Abram and Haran, sons of Terah, both which are 
the same with Job's three friends. All refer to the same thing 

— the triple division of the year of all the very ancient people's 

— spring, summer, winter, and are personified sometimes as 
men, sometimes as women. Singly, , they are represented as 
individuals, with each a head, thus forming each a season, or 
one in three / Q V Collectively, they are represented as one 
body having three heads, symbolic of the year, or the three in 
one (£y. Hence the three-headed Brahma, or Trimurti, of 
the Hindus; the Father, Son and Holy-Ghost, Godhead, or 
Trinity, of the Christians, and the triple-headed Cerberus of 
the Greeks. Cerberos, flesh-devour er, is the same as Chronos, 
or Time, which devours all things, even to his own children. 
The year closing as the Sun comes to the spring equinox, 
locates the abode of Cerberus in Hades, Hell, or Winter, 
whither Hercules, or the Sun, at the command of Eurystheus 
(Broad-god), went to dislodge him. 

Chap, xx vi. In the next six chapters, including this, Job 
delivers his parable, or allegory, i. e., he says one thing and 
means something else. In this chapter he seems to direct him- 
self particularly to Bildad, or winter, reminding him of his 
barrenness: Whom hast thou helped? To whom hast thou 
uttered words of kindness ? To whom hast thou given life ? 
" Dead things are found from under the waters ; and the 
inhabitants thereof" (v. 5), i. e., during the rainy season in 
winter nothing is produced. Hell (Earth in winter) is naked, 
and destruction (hell) hath no covering — no vegetation. God 
stretcheth the north over the empty place (Aries on his merid- 



job. 467 

ian in December), and "hangeth the earth on nothing" 
(Copernican system?). 

During the winter, or rainy season, the clouds are charged 
with water, and God's throne is covered with clouds. This 
state of things lasted until " the day and night came to an 
end," i. e., until the year ended at the spring equinox ; day 
being sumtner and night winter. The seven pillars of heaven 
("the seven pillars' of wisdom," Prov. ix, 1 ; or the seven sum- 
mer constellations) tremble (sparkle, for they are seen in the 
night in winter), and wonder at his curse ; for God (El) always 
curses, i. e., renders barren, the North temperate zone in win- 
ter. This idea, so far as I know, pervades the whole Bible. 
By his spirit he garnishes the heavens, — makes the summer 
constellations visible. He forms " the crooked serpent " (the 
Sun's ecliptic), and makes its circuit every year. 

Chap, xxvii. Job waits for reply, but none coming, he 
goes on with his parable (side-speaking). Though God (El) 
has taken away my judgment, and the Almighty vexed my 
soul (rained on him,* for hamar means to rain), yet so long 
as a particle of my breath remains in me, will I not speak 
wickedness, neither will I justify you (his three friends). 
Though my enemy (Aries in winter) be wicked, I will hold 
fast my righteousness, for, let me tell you, the hope of the 
hypocrite (under-player) is small. My condition, as you see, 
proves what I say. When God (Eloh) taketh away his soul 
(heat), will God (El) hear the hypocrite's cry ? Will the 
hypocrite then delight himself in the Almighty (Shaddai) and 
call upon God (EloK)% i. e., when winter comes will it be sum- 
mer? Of course not. 

By the hand of God (El), I will teach you ; but you have 
seen the bounties of the Almighty — summer; why, then, are 
you now altogether vain — empty? Let me tell you, " This is 
the portion of the wicked man when with God" (j57)= winter. 
" If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword " (v. 14). 
Witness the fate of my own (see chap. i). " The rich man 
shall lie down," " he openeth his eyes and is not" (v. 19). Is 

*In winter, the summer constellations are 6een in the night hemisphere. Hence it is 
said the Almighty rained on Job, or the Earth. 



468 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

not this my case ? You see it is. Terrors seize him, a tempest 
steals him away in the night (winter); the east wind (winter 
monsoon) carries him away and hurls him out of his place — - 
from the summer into the winter hemisphere. " He would 
fain flee of his (JEVs) hand. Oh that my calamity were laid 
in the balances (Libra) together" (vi. 1). 

In this chapter we have the finest example of the distinc- 
tion to be made between the two Gods, Eloh and El, the 
summer and the winter Gods, in the whole Bible. The line 
of demarcation is so plain and distinct, that with a correct 
translation of the Hebrew, the most unlettered can't fail to see 
it. Ignorance and rascality have hitherto prevented our having 
a faithful translation of the Bible. 

Chap, xxviii. Here Job discourses of many things, but 
is somewhat mixed, — of gold and silver, then of brass, as a 
distinct metal, not as an alloy of copper and zinc, as we know 
it to be ; next, of bread coming out of the earth ; of precious 
stones, birds, beasts, mountains, rivers and floods; and lastly, 
of wisdom, more precious than gold, — yea, even more to be 
valued than the gold of Ophir=the Sunshine of spring, which 
gives us bread. And as bread is more precious than the sun- 
shine, which produced it, so it must be equal in value to 
wisdom. But whence cometh wisdom? seeing it is hid from 
all living ; destruction and death (winter) alone having heard 
the fame thereof ! Let me tell you: " God (Elohim) under- 
standeth the way, for he looketh to the ends of the Earth and 
seeth under the whole heaven," i.e., the Elohim= (Sun-Earns) 
preside over summer from one end to the other. Hence " the 
fear of the Lord (Adoni— winter), that is, wisdom; and to 
depart from evil (winter) is understanding." Can the thing be 
made plainer ? 

Chap. xxix. Job again bewails his lost estate, but, in 
recurring to his former prosperity, his language soars aloft into 
grandeur and sublimity : " Oh that I were as in months past 
(the previous summer), when God's [Eloh) candle (the Sun) 
shined upon me ; as I was in my youth, when the Almighty 
was yet with me and my children (the summer months) were 
about me; when I washed my steps with butter and the rock 



job. 469 

poured out rivers of oil" (was it petroleum?). Then, oh what 
honor! The young men hid themselves (went below the 
equator) ; the aged stood up (above the equator) ; princes 
refrained from talking, and nobles held their peace. The ear 
hearing, blessed me, and the eye gave witness to me. I put 
on righteousness (came to the summer solstice), and it (the 
crops) clothed me. I delivered (fed) the poor, the fatherless 
and him that was helpless. I, turning to the Sun, gave sight 
to the blind. " Then I said I shall die in my nest (summer) 
and multiply my days as the sand," i. e., I thought summer 
would never end. My glory (early spring) was fresh upon 
me, and my (rain) bow (though lost during the winter) was 
renewed in my hand. Ah, those were happy times ! Men 
gave ear to my counsel, waited upon me, and opened their 
mouths as for the latter (spring) rain (v. 23). If I laughed, 
they believed it not (the weather in spring being changeable, 
if a tine day intervened, it was regarded as a weather breeder. 
"The news was too good to be true"). " I chose out their 
way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king, as one that comforteth 
mourners." 

Chap. xxx. " But the change came, and my prosperity 
was turned into calamity." As poverty overtook me, my house, 
of course, came to be held in contempt. Perhaps this is just, 
as I have treated others, perhaps my equals, with such extreme 
disdain, that I would not have set them with the dogs of my 
flock ; and now I am reminded of the proverb, " Pride goeth 
before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 
xvi, 18). In my younger days I prospered so greatly that I 
became the greatest man of the East. I had wife, sons and 
daughters, and with them I became the possessor of boundless 
wealth. Riches flowed into my coffers, as it were, by enchant- 
ment ; and with my possessions, came honor as the usual con- 
sequence. The Almighty was my first and most valued friend. 
In an unlucky moment, however, and as if in a freak of his fancy, 
this good friend forsook me, his " perfect and upright " servant, 
and turned me over into the hands of my most bitter enemy — 
Satan. Yes, in a moment my fickle and humorsome friend sev- 
ered the tie by which we were bound, notwithstanding he had 



470 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

doated over me so lavishly, and plunged me into this mire, 
made me a brother of dragons, and a companion of owls. The 
Sun, being at the winter solstice, the Earth is brought opposite 
the triple-headed dog of Hercules, and Draco in the northern 
hemisphere, he is made a brother to dragons. His situation de- 
pending on the Sun, which is near the Owl (Noetua), in the 
southern hemisphere, he is a companion to owls. " My harp 
(the seven summer constellations) is turned to mourning (si- 
ience=winter), and my organ, into the voice of them that 
weep (the rainy season). 

Chap. xxxi. Job continues : " I made a covenant with 
mine eyes, why then should I look upon a maid (Virgo)?" 
(being at the winter solstice, and in quartile aspect as regards 
the spring equinox, Job made the covenant only with his eyes, 
not with his person). Is not destruction to the wicked ? Ah ! 
don't I know it? Haven't I experienced that? If I have 
walked with vanity (winter), and my foot hasted to deceit, I 
couldn't help it. The Lord compelled me, sold me to Satan, 
and I am blameless. But no matter, let me be weighed in the 
even balance, and God (Eloh) will then know my integrity, 
for then I will be again in the path of righteousness — on the 
equinoctial line. 

What if I did, at the instance of God, step aside into the 
winter hemisphere, didn't the people eat of what I gave them? 
If my wife deceived me, didn't she grind unto another (Sarai 
with Pharaoh and Abimelech)? True, it was a heinous crime, 
for it rooted out mine increase — winter uses up the summer 
crop. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant and my 
maid-servant when they contended with me — expected a crop 
out of season — didn't God {El) fashion us all in one womb — 
winter ? 

I have not withheld from the poor, or from the widow, or 
from the fatherless. None perished from want of clothing ; all 
were warmed with the fleeces of my sheep. I didn't lift up my 
hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate 
(Sun in Aries). 'Twas then I provided for all. You priests 
(the passing seasons), the forgers of lies (xiii, 4), and your God 
{El) are the guilty ones, for you " delivered me into the hands 



job. 471 

of the wicked." If I did wrong, it was through you and your 
God's instrumentality. I meant no harm. My destruction 
came from God (El). Indeed it was a terror to me, but I 
couldn't help it, nor did I bear it except as I was compelled, 
for by reason of God's (EVs) highness (Aries on his meridian), 
I could not endure — could not produce. 

When I made gold (the gold of Opbir) my hope, and re- 
joiced in my wealth (the crops), for I had gotten much ; when 
I beheld the Sun shining, or the Moon walking in his bright- 
ness, i. e., when I saw the summer passing away, my heart (my 
faculty of producing) was secretly led astray, and winter came 
on. This was a great sin, to be punished by the judge, " for I 
should have denied the God (El) that is above " (v. 28). El, 
or Aries on his meridian, was " the God that is above." If I 
rejoiced and lifted myself up (summer) when evil and destruc- 
tion came upon my enemy (winter), my mouth didn't sin by 
wishing a curse upon his soul. If Job's household did exclaim : 
" Oh that we had of his flesh (the winter stores), — we cannot 
do without it ! " Of course they had it — the stranger did not 
lodge in the street. 

When I hid my transgressions as Adam (the earth) did, i. e., 
when I passed into the winter hemisphere, the old hiding- 
place, and thence committed evil, did I fear the multitude and 
the contempt of families? Not at all. Was it for this that I 
kept silence and remained within doors — in prison in the win- 
ter hemisphere — in Babylon? 

Oh that somebody would hear me — that the Almighty 
would answer me — that summer would come, and that mine 
adversary had written a book, i. e., that winter were ended ! 
Ah ! how gladly would I take it (winter) upon my shoulder. 
(The two equinoxes, or the east and the west, are the shoulders 
of the world, universe, or one turn = the year.) At the spring 
equinox, all the winter constellations appear above the horizon 
at sunrise, surmounting those of summer, and may well be 
compared to a crown of glory in token of the submission of 
Satan or winter. Then, too, would I declare unto him the 
number of my steps (degrees, one for each step or day)-; as a 
prince (of the first-class) would I go near unto him (the Al- 



472 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

mighty = summer). If ray land cry against me, or its furrows 
complain (bear no crop) ; if I eat the fruits thereof without 
money, or cause the owners thereof to lose their life, i. e., if, 
the seed being sown, I produce no crop, and thus cause the 
people to starve, as my enemy, winter, has done ; " then let 
thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley," 
i. e., let the summer, like winter, become "dreary and deso- 
late." Thus, the circuit of the Earth's orbit having been made, 
" the words of Job are ended." 

Chap, xxxii. So these three men (three seasons) ceased 
to answer Job, because he was righteous in his oivn eyes, i. e., 
he was at the spring equinox where the year ended, and also 
began. It was at this fortunate moment that Elihu (literally 
his, i. e., Job's Ram-Sun = Sun in Aries) got his wrath kindled 
against Job, i. e., his nose became red (yaharaph), and- the Sun 
shone square against the earth. This Elihu was the son of 
Barachel (blessed-Ram), the Bnzite, or the son of Buz (con- 
tempt = winter), and of the kindred of Ram (high = summer). 
Job justified himself rather than the Gods (Elohim), hence 
Elihu's anger. All being on the equinoctial line should be 
equally just, but Job, being vastly nearer the Sun than God 
(Aries), got more sunshine than God did, hence Elihu's (the 
Sun's) wrath was against Job. " Elihu had waited till Job 
and his friends had spoken, because they were older than he." 
But receiving no answer, Elihu began : " Though I am 
younger than you, I am inspired by the spirit of the Almighty 
(the heat of summer), which giveth understanding" (v. 8). 
" Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged under- 
stand judgment." " I attended unto you ; none of you an- 
swered Job's words " (v. 12). I expected you would say God 
(El) thrusted him down — not man; but you didn't, and I am 
disappointed. Therefore I am full, ready to burst (buds of 
spring), and will out with what I have to say. And though I 
speak, you needn't look for flattery, — I know nothing of this 
— but I am done with you ! 

Chap, xxxiii. Now Job, let me have a word with you. 
You needn't look so sour : " My lips shall utter knowledge 
clearly." If you can answer (show the growing crops), get 



job. 473 

ready — " stand up " (sea phrase). So Job " stood up." Behold 
I, Elilm (Sun in Aries), am, as you wished, in God's (El's) stead 
(v. 6). You needn't fear ; I will not be hard with you. But 
just now (at the fall equinox), I heard you say: "I am clean, 
and without transgression." I suppose you were, for you were 
where the days and nights were equal in length. Yea, more ; 
you said, " He (El) findeth occasions against me ; he counteth 
me for his enemy ; he putteth my feet into the stocks (winter)." 
Now Job, at this time you are not just, for God {Eloh) is 
greater than man. Don't strive against him ; for he accounts 
not to you, but you to him. 

God (El) speaks once, yea, twice (at the two equinoxes), 
but does not encompass us (v. 14). In a dream (in his bound 
up, or frozen state), in a vision of the night (winter), when 
deep sleep falleth upon man (Earth), in slumberings upon the 
bed (winter hemisphere) : then he uncovers the sick earth and 
completes his reproof. This he does that he may withdraw the 
earth (Adam) from producing, and hide (consume) the pride 
(the crops) of the strengthener (mizzeber)=summer. 

He (El) prevents the earth's soul, as contained in seeds. 
roots, etc., from perishing in the pit (hell or winter), but while 
the earth is upon its bed (winter), he inflicts much pain upon 
the multitude of his bones (the lean animals). Bread is scarce, 
and Isaac's venison is in request, but through a scanty supply, 
his (the earth's) flesh wastes, and his bones stick out ! Still, 
though he draws near death, yet if he pass the winter solstice. 
or w r here his reproof is completed, and seek God (Eloh), he 
shall see the light (spring), when his flesh shall be fresh as the 
child's, and he shall return to the days of his youth (v. 25). 

All these things God (El) oftentimes worketh with man to 
return his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light 
of the living, or of summer (v. 29). 

In this chapter, the difference between Eloh and El is 
plainly to be seen. 

Chap, xxxiv. Elihu again addresses the three wise men ; 
Tell us what is good. Job says he is righteous, but that God 
(El) has removed his judgment. Job is right, for he drinks 
scorning like water (the bare earth is made an object of derision) 



474 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

and keeps company with the wicked winter) : he says it don't 
pay to deal with God (Elohim). Poor Job is beside himself. 
God (El) will not do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert 
judgment (v. 12). God (El) has charge of the earth ; he sees 
man's doings (v. 21). He will not lay upon man more than 
right. True, he punishes you, but it is for your benefit, to 
bring you back into the path of your former glory. You, Job, 
spoke without knowledge or wisdom. " Let Job be tried unto 
the end (of the year) : because of his answers for wicked men." 

Chap. xxxv. Elihu still proceeds: Job, thou hast said 
thy righteousness is more than God's (El's). This is true ; but 
when you doubt that the cleansing you of your sins will ben- 
efit you, you reflect upon me. For I am righteous, even as 
thou art ; and whether you are benefited, or not, depends alto- 
gether upon me (the Sun). Look at the clouds above you, and 
at the heavens (the summer sky) also. In sinning (going into 
the winter hemisphere) can you benefit or hurt God (El)t 
Your wickedness (Sun's S. declination) may hurt man ; as your 
righteousness (Sun's N. declination) may benefit the son of 
man ; but you cannot move God. Why don't you ask, where 
is God (Eloh), your maker, and the author of the riches which 
God (Eloh) commissioned Satan (El), to deprive you of? God 
(El) will not hear vanity (the end of the year), neither will 
the Almighty (summer) regard it. You don't expect to see 
God (Eloh) again? Judgment is before him, i. e., opposite to 
him, in Libra. When you are weighed in the Balances (Libra), 
you will meet God (Eloh). True, God (El) now visits you in 
anger, yet you don't seem to realize his presence in your ex- 
tremity. But then you are excusable, for your words are vain 
(dreary and desolate), and uttered without knowledge. 

Chap, xxxvi. Elihu still goes on : Yet, I will speak in 
God's (EloNs) behalf — will ascribe righteousness to my maker, 
and will not lie. God (El) is mighty, though not partial. If 
he preserves not the life of the wicked (winter) ; he gives right 
to the poor, and looks upon the righteous (summer). Bound 
in fetters (of frost), he shows them their transgression (Sun's S. 
declination), and bids them return from their iniquity. Obey- 
ing, they prosper; disobeying, they perish, or dwell among 



-job. 475 

the consecrated^ the prostitutes, Sodomites, or the children of 
Sodom, Hell or winter. You, Job, as you ought to know, he 
would have taken from this Hell, to a place where your table 
would be loaded with fatness (the fruits of summer), but you 
have fulfilled the judgment of the wicked, i. e., you are at the 
spring equinox. Beware, now, lest his stroke throw you away 
— out of your orbit, as then a Redeemer would be out of the 
question (v. 18). For your riches, he don't care a fig ! Desire 
not the night (winter), for then people are often cut off. God 
(El) is great, and exalts (lifts up) by his power. You can't 
count his years. He casts abroad his light, rains upon the 
earth, then judges and feeds the people, i. e., after the rainy 
season of winter and spring, come the various crops of the 
season. The beauty and expressiveness of the language is un- 
surpassable. 

Chap, xxxvii. Elihu concludes: When God (El) thun- 
ders and lightens, my heart trembles. " Great things doeth 
he, which we cannot comprehend " (v. 5). He causes rain and 
snow, when man cannot work, and the beasts go into their 
dens. " From the chamber cometh the whirlwind ; from the 
north it is called "~ (literal translation of v. 9). God's (EVs) 
breath (the north wind) brings frost, and water freezes (v. 10). 
But, Job, the clouds have shed their rain, and the skies are 
brightening up. Stand still. Job (spring equinox), and con- 
sider the wondrous works of God (El\ i. e., the creative or 
generative operations of Mature.. Dost know when God (Eloh) 
set them up, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? Yes! 
(See Ex. xiv, 19.) When the clouds are balanced, you know, 
your garments become warmed by the south wind. Fair 
(golden = the gold of Ophir=over) weather cometh from the 
north, and with .God (Eloh) is much swelling (the budding of 
spring). As to the Almighty (summer), we cannot, as yet, find 
him out. However, as he is excellent in power, in judgment 
and in -justice, we need not fear him. " He will not afflict." 

Chap, xxxviii. The Lord = Indra = Zeus = Jupiter= the 
Atmosphere, and by interchange of influence, the Sun, now 
"out of the whirlwind," or, at the change of the monsoons, in 
his turn, takes Job in hand. 



476 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Who are you, Job, that darkens counsel by words without 
knowledge? Now, sir, stand up like a man (see the man in 
the frontispiece of any almanac) ; for I will demand of you, and 
you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the founda- 
tions of the earth? — when the morning stars (the stars rising* 
just before the Sun) sang together, and the sons of God 
(Elohim = Ram = Suns of summer), or the seven summer 
months, shouted for joy ? — spring ! 

Who, let me ask again, set bounds to the (Red) sea, and 
said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther, and here shall 
thy proud waves be stayed ? " Didn't I do it ? True, you 
aided somewhat (gravitation). Hast thou commanded the 
morning (spring) since thy days (the previous summer), and 
caused the day-spring (equinoctial day) to know his place ;. 
that summer might begin, and the wicked (winter) be shaken 
off? No, sir; you have not; but you entered into the springs 
of the sea (the rainy season of winter), and walked in search of 
the depth (winter solstice); you opened the gates of death 
(winter) and have seen the doors thereof. Now, sir, tell me 
where light (summer) dwells; and where is darkness (winter) ? 
You know, for then (at mid-winter) you were born, but you 
have seen many days. You have also seen snoio and hail, 
which come in winter, in time of trouble — against the day of 
battle (the battle of the long nights), of which Aries, God, or 
Mars, the god of war is my great general — my Joshua. 

Next, tell me how the light is parted (Gen. i, 4) which 
scattereth the east wind (the changing monsoon) upon the 
earth. Who divided the watercourse (the waters from the 
waters, — Gen. i, 6), i. e., who divided the former from the 
latter rain, and provided for the lightning of thunder? Hath 
the rain a father? Am I not he (Jupiter pluvius)? Who 
gendereth ice, and the hoary frost? — is it not I? Ah! Job, 
the waters are still frozen — and summer is not (v. 30.) 

Nay, more : " Canst thou bind (secure) the sweet influences 
of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ? " for this is what 
we now seek.* You don't understand me? Well, I'll put 

* The Pleiades, or seven stars, as they are commonly called, are situated in the neck 
of Taurus, or the Bull. The Sun and Taurus rise together in May, when the trees are 



job. 477 

the question in another form, for the capacity, or, rather, the 
incapacity, of ignorance must be conformed to — Can you put 
forth buds, leaves and flowers, except by the aid, through me, 
of that great fountain of light, the Sun ? You needn't answer 
just now, for I know you can't. Again, can you bring forth 
Mazzaroth (the zodiac) in his season, or guide Arcturus* with 
his sons ? This, too, is beyond your capacity ? Then I'll again 
simplify; — Can you make the circuit of the zodiac, or the 
summer portion of it, without the aid of the same great source 
of all things — I mean the Sun ? You may take your time for 
a reply. Furthermore, do you know the ordinances of heaven 
(the solar system)? Can you, of yourself, cause rain, send 
forth the lightnings, number the clouds (Jacob's cattle), hunt 
prey for the lion, etc.? Nay; one question more — Who pro- 
vides food for the raven ? because, when his young ones cry 
unto God (El), they wander for lack of food. I know your 
priests say otherwise, but they are even more ignorant than 
yourself! The difference between Eloh, the summer God, 
and El, the winter God, is here and elsewhere always con- 
spicuous. 

Chap, xxxix. The Lord continues: Job, the wild goats 
(Capricorn) of the rock (meridian) gestate five months (the 
five winter months), and bring forth in the spring. They bow 
down (Capricorn descending from his zenith) and cast forth 
their sorrows (the winter). Their young grow up with the 
corn, go forth and return not. Who set the wild ass free, 

loaded, and the earth covered with the " sweet influences of the Pleiades " (the odors of 
the flowers). Orion, one of the most conspicuous constellations seen in the winter sky 
rises with the Sun near a month later, when the summer is fully established. Orion sets 
in autumn, when the Sun rises in Scorpio, hence, cold weather, and " the bands of Orion," 
which are loosed at the return of wai'm weather. 

* " Arcturus and his sons, 1 ' i. e., the constellation Bootes. Not perceiving the true 
sense of the holy text, authors differ as to the constellation here referred to. Gesenius 
supposes Ursa Major, or the Great Bear, though he admits that the word so translated 
does not, of itself, signify a bear. Fuerst, less positive, says it means " either the tail of 
the Pleiades, or the seven stars, the Great Bear, or some other constellation " (Heb. Lex., p. 
1045). Thus, having plenty of latitude, I adopt Bootes, as above, in which I am borne out 
by the translators of the " authorized version.' 1 '' Arcturus, or Bootes, rises with Virgo, 
and Argo Navis, or Noah's ark, at the end of summer, when the rainy season begins, and 
when the great menagerie, being provided for, is ready to go into the ark, or, in other 
words, into winter quarters. 

I remark, in passing, that Noah's wife's name was Barthenm, which, substituting P 
for B, becomes Parlhenos, a Grecian goddess — the Virgo of the Latins (see Dupuis' Ori- 
gin of ell Worship, torn, iii, pt. ii, p. 108). 



478 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

thereby loosing his bands (Cancer, with the two stars called 
the asses, passing his meridian, and wild because in the winter 
hemisphere) ? whose house I have made the wilderness (win- 
ter) and the barren land (winter) his dwelling. 

Will the wild ox* (Taurus in winter) be willing to serve you 
— can vou bring him to the furrow ? No ! you cannot. Did 
you give wings to the peacocks, f or wings and feathers to the 
ostrich?^: She (the ostrich = winter) scorneth the horse and 
his rider (the Sun). Did you give strength to the horse, and 
clothe his neck with thunder? You did not! 

Chap. xl. The Lord continues : Does not he that con- 
tends with the Almighty (winter against summer) depart from 
him? Let him (winter) that reproaches God (Eloh), answer. 

Job. O Lord, behold I am vile, low and despised 
(earth in winter); how shall I return (shib) unto thee? § I 
spake once (against thee), when I left the summer hemisphere, 
and now, returning to it, I speak again, and wait a reply (Job, 
or Earth in the Balances or Libra, where he so earnestly wished 
himself (vi, 1). But, Oh, I pray thee, take me to thyself, guide 
and direct my steps, that I may put on the panoply of thy 
might, by which I may be able to resist the future attacks of 
Satan, into whose power, as thou hast once done, thou wilt 
most likely commit me again ! 

The Lord, having heard Job's petition, now, for the second 
time addresses Job out of the whirlwind (the spring monsoon) 
in strains truly sublime : u Gird up thy loins and be a man 
(i. e., a giant) ; I will demand of thee (a crop) and declare thou 
(produce it) unto me." You can't disannul my judgment; 

* "Unicorn " in the English text. The original is "rim," from " rum" to he high. 
The *' Unicorn " being a modern constellation, this translation is consequently erroneous. 
The probability is altogether in favor of the wild <%c=Taurus in winter. He comes to his 
meridian in January. 

tThe peacock, or bird of Juno, is Sarai, Abram's wife, and symbolized "the serene 
starry heavens," because " of its eye-bespangled feathers" (Gubernatis' Zool. Myth., vol. 
ii, p. 323). 

% The ostrich, because of its proverbial voracity, also symbolized winter. The word 
so translated may also be rendered eagle according to the opinion of some. This constel- 
lation, rising with Scorpio, anciently the first of the winter months, denotes the winter, 
and as it always precedes Pegasus, it was said she scorned the Horse. She is always 
among the slain, or winter constellations, where her prey is. 

§This is the correct translation, and the only one that will give us the true meaning 
of the author, whoever he may have been. 



job. ' 479 

you can't ignore me, and be righteous. Have you an arm like 
God (El) ; can you thunder with a voice like his? 

Now " cast abroad the rage of thy wrath " (the dreary and 
desolate winter), look upon every proud one, and abase him 
(v. 11); "tread down the wicked in their place" (v. 12), i. e., 
look at the winter constellations, all now above the horizon at 
sunrise; bring them below during summer. " Deck thyself 
with majesty and excellency and array thyself with glory 
and beauty, i. e., put forth buds, leaves and flowers, that at the 
end of summer, you may show a bountiful crop. " Then will 
I confess unto thee that thine own right hand (summer ; win- 
ter being the left) can save thee " (v. 14). 

Behold now (spring) behemoth* {all cattle, collectively ; 
plural of behemah) which I made with thee; he eateth grass 
as oxen. His strength is in his loins (the latter end of sum- 
mer); his force is in his navel (the same being a mere pleo- 
nasm) of his belly. He moves his tail (at the end of summer, 
when cattle are fat) like a cedar (i. e., strongly). The moun- 
tains (summer months, where all the beasts play, bring him 
forth food. In the hot weather he frequents the shady trees, 
the covert of the reeds and fens, as cattle still do. See you, 
it is impossible to take him, for you can't hook his nose ! " He 
trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth!" a not 
impossible conclusion. The ox eateth grass like an ox! 

Chap. xli. The Lord continues to address Job (Earth). 
" Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook?" or "bore his 
jaw with a thorn?" Here is a grand conundrum. The 
"leviathan " is conjectured to have been a crocodile, a cetus, or 
whale, a hippopotamus, a dragon, a crooked serpent, etc., any 
huge and frightful object, no matter what, so it gratified the 
morbid taste of the ignorant and superstitious multitude — 
anything but the truth, which theologians seldom seek. 

Etymology, which is our great sheet-anchor and only sure 
guide in mythology, shows us that "leviathan" is a compound 

*It is really amusing to read the endless comments and glosses which have heen writ- 
ten on this word '•'•behemoth.' 1 '' Common sense would suppose the object of the writers 
was simply to avoid the plain and obvious meaning of the text. The truth that cattle eat 
grass like oxen, was too simple to be seen by learned theologians, most of whom, seeking 
to fill their own bellies, never think of an ox, except in the form of steak, as it comes 
smoking hot upon their platters — let alone the ox eating grass like an ox. 



480 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

of three distinct roots — levi=& joining together, jah— the Sun, 
and than =a, serpent. Leviathan is that portion of the Sun's 
ecliptic called summer. In winter leviathan is cast into the 
sea to be hooked out in the spring. The dreaded season of 
winter may be denoted by any great animal, any of the above- 
named ; the whale which swallowed Jonah, or the Sun, being 
the one most likely meant. 

In iii, 8, this word leviathan is translated mourning, as 
testified by the marginal reading. The translation is so dis- 
torted that much attention is required in reading it, to get at 
its meaning. The English should run thus : Let them that 
curse the day, and who are ready to haul up leviathan, curse 
the night also, i. e., on the return of spring let winter, cursed 
winter, pass away. The Whale and the Ram rise together. 
If the Sun come in conjunction with them, summer follows — 
leviathan is hooked out of the sea. 

Leviathan, we are told, sometimes meant Pharaoh ; at 
other times it referred to Sennacherib, etc. (see Smittis Bib. 
Diet, Art. Leviathan). In Isa. xxvii, 1, u leviathan " is " that 
crooked serpent." What "crooked serpent?" Are not all 
serpents " crooked," one as well as another? Why this distinc- 
tion? The adjective must F | G 6 
refer to some permanent 
characteristic of the serpent 
spoken of, and as I know of ^ 
no other " crooked serpents " 
than the orbits of the plan- 
ets, I conclude leviathan is 
the Sun's ecliptic, or, what 
is the same thing, the Earth's 
orbit. This serpent is here 
shown. He may be seen in 
the frontispiece to Mallet's s 

Northern Antiquities. So this " leviathan " is a terrible fellow. 
He will not make a covenant with you — will not come 
between God and Noah, for the constellations are beyond our 
solar system ; still we use him as a " servant," as a means to 
denote the time of the year. Don't play with him as with 




job. 481 

a bird, nor fill his skin with " barbed irons" or his head with 
fish spears; but lay thy hand upon him gently (v. 8) — let the 
warm weather come. He has terrible teeth, for he (time) 
devours all things. His scales (bits of time) are so near 
together that no air can come between them. By his " nees- 
ings," sneesings, or radiations, light is sent forth, and sorrow 
(winter) is turned to joy (summer). He esteems Iron (winter) 
as straw ; but he beholdeth high things, and is king over all 
the children of pride (summer). 

Chap. xlii. Job responds : " I know that thou canst do 
everything, and that no thought can escape thee." Unwit- 
tingly, I have hidden counsel, and uttered what I understood 
not — a thing not uncommon, as thou knowest, with thy 
people. Therefore listen and let me speak : I will demand of 
thee (good weather) ; and declare thou (it) unto me. I heard 
of thee (during winter), but now I see thee. Wherefore, com- 
ing from darkness (winter) into light, I abhor (see) myself 
{dreary and desolate), and repent (repoenite — "I feel pain," 
because the worms — animals — have taken off my skin, the 
crop of last summer) in dust and ashes (naked earth), yet in 
my flesh, skinless, I now see God (I?loh=$\m in Aries). 

The anger of the Lord was now kindled (the atmosphere 
began to get warm) against Eliphaz (Golden-Ram, or the Ram 
returning the golden fleece=the spring crops) and his two 
friends. So he ordered them to take seven bullocks and seven 
rams (Taurus and Aries during summer) and go to Job, and 
offer up for themselves a burnt offering (summer), while Job 
prayed for them (grew a crop), or, said he, " I will deal with 
you according to your folly," i. e., I will produce no crop. 

So Job's three friends did as the Lord bid them, and " the 
Lord turned the captivity of Job," i. e., he released him, or 
the Earth, from the winter season. Job now began to pray for 
his friends, and the Lord gave him " twice as much as he had 
before" — the old stock with the increase. Thus the Lord 
blessed Job's latter end (summer) more than his former 
(winter). 

Besides having his property returned with interest, Job got 
back his seven sons and three daughters — without increase! 
31 



482 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

He named his daughters, Jemima (Dove= Spring), Kezia 
(nakedness = Summer), and Keren-happuch (painted-horn = 
Winter). In all the land (the year) there were no daughters 
so fair as Job's. He didn't think his sons worth naming. So 
Job died, being old and full of years. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

PSALMS. 

THE Psalms (tehillim, " resoun dings," reflections or throw- 
ings-back=echoes-of-sounds) are one hundred and fifty in 
number. The word psalm is from the Greek jpsallo, I sing, 
so that it is not .an exact translation of the original. They are 
wholly, or at least for the most part, fragmentary pieces which 
relate to different portions of the year, and are calculated to be 
used on special occasions, or at particular seasons of the year. 
Thus, in spring, at harvest, and during the vintage, the welkin 
was made to resound, or echo the praises of the Lord, or 
Jahveh, whence the name tehillim. If in winter, when food is 
scarce, as often happens with ignorant and semi-barbarous 
tribes of people, disease, want and suffering prevail, lamenta- 
tions are made, and prayers offered up by the afflicted in con- 
sequence for their delivery from such distress. In summer, 
when mild weather prevails, and food is plenty and the health 
of the people good, thanksgiving songs of praise are poured 
out by the people in commendation of the great Jahveh (fine 
summer weather), the bounteous giver of all their present 
enjoyments. Hence it is that these two great features, so long 
lost sight of, prevail so extensively throughout the whole book. 
And hence, too, it may be, that the ancient division of the 
whole into five parts, or books, as they were called, came about 
in part at any rate. 

1. The first of these five parts, or books, we are told ended 
with Psalm xli, with a reduplication of the word Amen, God 
(Aries), the great architect. In this first part the word Jahveh 
prevails. 

2. The second ended with Psalm lxxii, the last verse being, 
" The prayers (fallings-down below the equator) of David (the 



484 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Sun), the son of Jesse, are ended." The principal word is 
"God" (Elohim). 

3. The third terminated at the end of Psalm lxxxix, with 
the reduplicated Amen, like the first book. In this book 
Elohim and Jahveh nearly balance ; the former being used in 
the first half, and the latter in the last half of the book. 

4. The fourth is concluded with Psalm cvi. In this fourth 
book Jahveh is almost exclusively used, being coupled with 
Elohim a few times only. The El, in cvi, 21, was the God 
of the winter hemisphere ; he did great things in Egypt 
(winter), and would have destroyed them, had not Moses, 
(Aquarius) stood in the breach (winter solstice) to turn away 
his wrath, because they believed not his word (v. 24). 

5. Of course the balance of the Psalms is left for the fifth 
division. Here virtually Jahveh prevails almost wholly, "Elo- 
him being found therein only in two passages incorporated from 
the earlier psalms " (Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. Psal., Book of). 

Thus, then, are we enabled to judge, having the key, as to 
the general tenor of each of these five books, or of the whole 
body of the Psalms taken together : 

1. If the psalm be in form of complaint, lamentation, 
prayer or petition, to either Jahveh or Elohim, the time is 
winter, from the privations of which relief is sought. 

2. But if the psalm take the form of rejoicing, thanks- 
giving, and praise, the time is summer, and the people are 
happy and contented. 

3. If the psalm be put on a double form of disparagement 
and praise, the whole year is included in it. 

1. Under the first head, we have plenty of examples ; as 
in Psalms x, xiii, xiv, xvi, etc. In all these David (the summer 
Sun) is in great affliction, hence his prayers for deliverance 
from captivity — his sojourn in the winter hemisphere. He 
complains, in Psalm x, that the Lord in his time of trouble, had 
hid himself; that the wicked (El) persecutes the poor, boast- 
eth his heart's desire, blesseth the covetous, and that Eloh is 
not in all his thoughts, etc. Yet, having made his complaint, 
he prays in v. 12, to the winter (El), and asks why the wicked 
(himself) contemn Eloh. Thus the difference between the 



PSALMS. -485 

winter (El) and the summer (Eloh) is made evident. David if 
unable to procure the help he desires, is willing to take up 
with such as he can get. If out of the reach of Eloh, he will, 
and does, petition Satan for help ! 

In Psalm xiii, David complains that the Lord (summer) has 
forgotten him, and that he is like " to sleep the sleep of death." 
In Psalm xiv, considering his forlorn condition, he exclaims : 
The fool hath said in his heart, there is no Elohim. This is 
a most, if not the most, famous text in the whole Bible among 
the clergy ; but they never knew its meaning. I will remove 
some of their flatulency. This saying, uttered in the winter, 
is true, for then Elohim (summer) is not. David, the fool, i. e., 
the Sun in winter, said it and knew whereof he affirmed. This 
the context shows ; for he adds (v. 2) : " The Lord looked 
down from heaven upon the children of men (Adam), to see if 
there were any that did understand and seek Elohim=sum- 
mer. But he found (v. 3) all had gone aside and become 
filthy =" muddy;" "there is none that doeth good, no, not 
one." The workers of iniquity (Sun's S. declination) were 
very ignorant, for they didn't know that Elohim, is in the gen- 
eration (or circle) of the righteous (summer), and not with the 
wicked (winter). Oh ! that the salvation (the Sun) of Israel 
were come out of Zion (literally Ship-Sun, or Noah's ark), i. e., 
were come out of the winter hemisphere. When the Lord 
(summer comes and) brings back the captivity of his people, 
Jacob (the summer Sun) will rejoice, and Israel (summer) be 
glad. Psalm liii is but a duplicate of this. 

In Psalm xvi, David, or the Sun, addresses the winter (El) 
as for the time being there was no other, for the fool, David, 
had said in his heart, there are no Elohim, or summer Gods. 
While the saints (summer constellations) are in the earth, i. e., 
are night constellations, David takes his refuge with the Lord. 
He blesses the Lord, because he will not leave his soul in Sheol, 
or Hell, nor suffer the Holy One, the Sun, to see corruption 
(a hreaJcing-up-together), but will show him, David, the path to 
life (summer) ; for at the right hand (summer) are pleasures 
forevermore. Winter, El or Sheol, was always the left, or un- 
used hand, God or Ram. 



486 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

But the best specimen psalm, perhaps, for the illustration 
of this division of our subject is that numbered xxii. Here we 
find David in the greatest affliction. Hence the famous ex- 
clamation, which was afterward repeated by the Christian 
Savior in a similar situation: Eli, eli, lama sabachthani? 
My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me? why dost not 
thou help me? why so far from the words of my roarino-? 
Thus David addressed the winter (El), but not for help, because, 
as. he well knew, he might have cried both night and day, as 
he said he did, to the Elohim, who were far distant from him, 
without obtaining help until spring came — " thou hearest not." 
Hence he prayed to Elohim prospectively, believing that when 
he could make them hear, help or summer would come. But 
while praising the Holy One of Israel (summer Sun), his mind 
suddenly reverted to his low condition, whence he exclaimed : 
" But I am a worm and not a man ; " thus happily comparing 
his situation (that of the Sun in winter) to a worm in its chry- 
salid state during the winter. " He rolled on the Lord " (mar- 
ginal reading), i. e., the Sun rolled through the heavens as we 
daily see it, and trusted that the Lord would at length bring 
him into the summer hemisphere. • 

" Thou art he that took me out of the womb (of winter), 
and didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts 
(shadi, the word so frequently translated Almighty). David, 
Christ, Ganymede (Joy-promoter), and many other Gods, were 
born at the winter solstice, where they were all, David among 
them, placed upon their mothers lap. Hence David (v. 10) 
says, " Thou art my God (my El) from my mother's belly " — 
mid-winter. Don't go off, for trouble is near, and there is 
none to help (v. 11). Many strong bulls of Bashan have com- 
passed me around. The dogs (Canis major and minor) have 
beset me (are come around opposite me) : I am poured out like 
water, my strength is dried up, and I can count my bones 
(ribs). They part my garments among them, and cast lots 
{gamble, as the "bulls and bears" still do) upon my vesture 
(the crops). 

But, O my Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me ! 
my only one, deliver me from the dog, save me from the Lion's 



PSALMS. 487 

mouth (Leo roars as a lion), for thou hast heard me from the 
horns of the unicorns (the constellation Taurus). Then, Oh, 
then, will I praise thee in the midst of the congregation (the 
seven summer months), and show a line crop ! Yes, then will 
I praise thee, and the meek (the people in winter) shall eat 
and be satisfied — filled. 

Psalm lxix shall suffice for the illustration of this first 
division of my subject — the year. 

Here we find David in great distress — sunk in the deep 
mire (of winter), and weary with crying (rainy season). His 
eyes fail (winter is blind) while he waits for his God (EloK). 
Surrounded on all sides by enemies more numerous than the 
hairs of his head, he acknowledges his former foolishness in 
saying there is no Elohim (xiv, 1 ; liii, 1). For this he is ex- 
tremely sorry and wishes to reinstate himself in the good 
graces of the Adoni Jahveh* of hosts, i. e., the summer Sun. 

Pie had borne much for the Lord's sake — the shame and 
reproach of his enemies ; had become a stranger unto his breth- 
ren, had made his garment of sackcloth (emblem of winter), 
and become a proverb to his enemies ! 

Therefore he would now, in an acceptable time, put up his 
petition to the Lord : " Hear me, O Lord, deliver me out of 
this mire (winter) ; don't, oh, don't let the water (Noah's flood) 
overflow me, nor the pit (winter) swallow me. O Lord, thy 
loving kindness is good, but oh, don't hide thy face from me, 
for I am in trouble. My dishonor, my reproach, my shame, as 
thou knowest, have broken my heart (summer). My enemies 
give me gall for meat, and vinegar for drink. Oh, turn their 
table into a trap, darken their eyes, let their habitation be 
desolate, for they persecute (come after) me, whom thou hast 
smitten. Blot them out of the book of life (summer); let 
them not come among the righteous." 

But I am poor and sorrowful (winter) ; O Gods (Elohim), 
set me up on high (in the summer hemisphere), and oh, how I 
will praise the name of the Gods (Elohim), and magnify them 
with thanksgiving — what a crop I will show him ! 

* Adoni Jahveh seems to refer to the summer constellations from Aries to Libra in- 
clusive. Aries and Libra, it will be remembered, are the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, 
which were saved after " the captivity,'' the other ten being lost. 



488 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

In Psalm xlii, David's soul pants after the Gods (Elohim). 
His tears (the rainy season) continually say, Where are the 
Gods (Elohim). The time was when David went with the 
multitude to the house of the Gods (Elohim), with joy and 
praise. Remembering this, he now pours out his soul, saying, 
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope in the Gods 
(Elohim) for I shall yet praise them. O my Gods (Elohim), 
my soul is cast down (in Hell), therefore I will remember you 
from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill 
Mizar, i. e., from Zion, the ship Sun, or winter solstice. 

" Deep calleth unto deep, and the Lord's waves run over 
me, yet will I command his loving kindness in the day time 
(next summer). Ah, then I will say to the God (El) of my 
rock (to El sabi — to the Ram on his meridian at the winter 
solstice), why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning 
because of the oppression of the enemy?" They reproach me 
daily, saying : Where are thy Gods (Elohim) ? for I shall yet 
praise them — shall see summer and produce the usual crop! 

2. Of the psalms relating to summer, Psalm xix is a per- 
fect model. David is in his glory. " The heavens declare the 
glory of God" (El), i.e., his "renown-deserving agency" 
(Euerstfs Heb. Lex., p. 633) ; for God (El), or Aries of winter, 
is supposed to be the agent in bringing about this happy state 
of things. " The firmament (the division between the waters 
above and those below — a great big watch crystal, perhaps) 
showeth his handy work." 

David (the Sun) is like a bridegroom, fresh from his cham- 
ber (winter), and ready, as a strong man, to run his race from 
one end of the heavens to the other — making "his circuit" 
from the East to the West, or between the equinoxes, during 
summer. His praises of the Lord are now boundless, unmeas- 
ured, though not exaggerated ; as all will agree that the prod- 
ucts of summer are more to be desired than gold, which of 
itself, will not sustain life. Yet, notwithstanding his present 
happiness, he fears for the future ; is apprehensive of evil — of 
winter \ hence he prays that he may remain upright — be kept 
from presumptuous (looked-for) sins, and that he may not 
transgress (v. 13), or pass over into the winter, but remain in 



PSALMS. 489 

the summer hemisphere. So long as he can do the will of the 
Lord, i. e., remain in the summer half of the year, he will 
commit no sin. 

Psalm lxxxii. This is a psalm of Asaph (the collector, or 
the Sun at the spring equinox, because here the year ended — was 
collected, or gathered up). At the spring equinox the winter 
zodiacal constellations are all overhead at sunrise. Hence, it 
is said : The Gods (Elohim) stand in the congregation of the 
mighty El, who judges in the place of the Gods (Elohim), i.e., 
the Elohim, or summer constellations, now occupy the place 
El, or the winter constellations, did at the beginning of winter, 
being separated by the equinoctial line alone. He {the El) judges 
in the place of the Gods (the Elohim). How long will ye 
(Gods) judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? 
i. e., how long will yon summer constellations remain below 
the equator? — Selah ; — stop now, leave the wicked; judge 
(see marginal reading) the poor and fatherless ; deliver the poor 
and needy ; and get them out of the hand of the wicked (win- 
ter). For they (the poor and needy, summer constellations) 
don't understand, but walk in darkness (are night constella- 
tions) ; all the foundations of the earth (the winter constella- 
tions) are out of their course, above the equator. I have said 
ye are Gods (Elohim), yea more ; ye are the sons of the Most 
High (Eleon= uppermost, or highest Sun, i. e., the mid- sum- 
mer Sun). But ye shall die like men, and fall (set) like one of 
the princes, or chiefs, of the zodiacal constellations (Libra then 
setting). Now, arise, O Gods (Elohim), and judge the earth, 
for ye shall inherit (claim) among all nations. 

Here, by supplying in parenthesis the names of the two 
kinds of Gods, the reader is enabled to see the true sense of 
the psalmist. At the same time he is qualified to judge of the 
ignorance and rascality displayed in King James' translators. 
But they and the king had a purpose to subserve — to rule and 
rob the people by keeping them in ignorance. 

In psalm lxxxiii, we have another psalm of Asaph (the col- 
lector). In this the position of the sphere is the same as in 
the previous psalm. " Keep not silence, O Gods (Elohim), be 
not still," i. e., at the change of the monsoon, let there be a 



• ■ 

490 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

confusion^ as at the demolition of the tower of Babel (see 
Babel). 

Your enemies (the winter constellations) now make a tumult 
(the confusion of Babel); they have lifted up their head and 
occupy the upper hemisphere ; they have combined against you 
and your hidden ones (the summer constellations, which are 
below the horizon). Yes ; the tabernacles of Edom and Ish- 
mael ; of Moab, and the Hagarenes (sons of Hagar) ; Gebal, 
Amnion and Amalek^the Philistines; and also Assur, who 
have helped the children of Lot (all being the genii of winter), 
are all joined against, i. e., opposite you. Serve them as you 
did the Midianites, Sisera and Jabin, at the brook Kishon (bow- 
Sun, or Sun in Aries), which were slain at En-dor (fountain of 
the circle), and became as dung for the earth, i. e., the earth, 
becoming warm, began to produce. Make their nobles like 
Oreb and Zeeb (the Owl and the Wolf, two southern constel- 
lations, and symbols of darkness, night or winter), i. e., let 
them pass gradually below the horizon ; let them be as Zeba 
and Zalmunna (slaughter and shade). Constellations going be- 
low the horizon are considered as dead, and in the shade. 
They would possess the houses of the Gods (Elohim) ; would 
get above the equinoctial line. Now, O Gods, (Elohi) make 
them like a wheel (Ezekiel's wheel = the zodiac), then persecute 
(follow after) them, and turn them back over the equator into 
their own place (as they are at the end of summer); let them 
know that you, whose collective name is Jahveh, are the Most 
High over all the earth. 

3. Psalm lxxxiv. This is a song for the sons of Korah 
(baldness= winter), i. e., for the people in winter. "Thy 
tabernacles (summer constellations), O Lord, are they not 
pleasant? O how my heart cries out for the living God (El 
cM—YXo\\). Blessed are they that dwelt in thy house; and 
blessed is the man (Earth) whose strength (power of produc- 
tion) is in thee ; who, passing through the valley of Baca 
(weeping = rainy season = winter),, shall go from company to 
company (marginal reading), i. e., from constellation to con- 
stellation, or from month to month, until he shall behold the 
God of Gods (El Elohim, — see Clark's comment, in loco) in 



PSALMS. 491 

Zion (Ship-Sun = winter) at mid-winter.* O Lord of hosts, 
hear my prayer ; give ear, O my God (Elohi) of Jacob — but 
stop (selah), look, O ye Gods (Elohim), our shield, look upon 
the face of your anointed (the New Year Sun). Ah ! a day in 
your courts (summer) is better than a thousand in this my 
captivity (winter). I had rather be a door-keeper in the house 
of my God (Eloh), i. e., I would much rather the season were 
summer than winter, which is so wet, cold and disagreeable. 
The Lord of Gods {Jahveh Elohim) is the Sun in summer ; he 
will give glory, i. e., riches and every good thing, to those who 
cultivate his good will. Blessed is the (industrious) man who 
abideth with him during summer. 

Psalm cviii. This is a Psalm of David, or the summer 
Sun. Like Apollo (the Greek Sun-God), David invokes his 
lyre (the seven summer months), and sings praises to the Lord 
(summer) among the nations. He urges the Gods (Elohim) to 
the zenith (mid-summer), that the Earth may put on its richest 
dress, and thus save the people by their right hand (the crops 
of summer), their left hand being winter. Because the Gods 
(Elohim) had spoken in their holiness, i. e., because summer 
had come, he (David) will rejoice (produce a good crop). He 
will, divide Shechem (the summer) and mete out the valley of 
Succoth (winter) ; for he possesses Gilead, Mannasseh and 
Ephraim (the year). 

u Judah (summer solstice) is my law-giver ; Moab (winter 
solstice) is my wash-pot ; over Edom (winter) will I cast my 
shoe, i. e., shoes are to be worn in winter ; over Philistia (win- 
ter) will I triumph. But who will lead him into the strong 
city — into Edom, or winter? Who, but the Gods {Elohim) 
who had cast him off, i. e., who had left him at the fall equi- 
nox % The Gods {Elohim) will also, at the return of spring, go 
forth with the hosts (summer months), and so help us out of. 
trouble. The help of man is vain, but through the Gods 
{Elohim) we obtain help ; for it is they that shall tread down 
our enemies ; it is through them that we shall do valiantly ! 
Summer will come after winter, and produce a crop. 

* El is the God of Gods, because, being the winter God, he existed before the Elohim, 
or summer Gods. 



492 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Psalm ex. This is said to be a psalm of David. Perhaps 
it might rather be called a psalm of David and Korah, or of 
summer and winter. Whosesoever, or whatsoever it may be, it 
is a very peculiar psalm ; and, though not understood, it has 
been much commented upon by believer and skeptic. 

" The Lord said unto my Lord." This is nonsense, and 
nothing but nonsense. When, however, we recur to the He- 
brew, the sense comes out at once in bold relief: " The Lord 
{Jahveh— the summer Sun) said unto my Lord (Adoni= the 
winter Sun), sit thou at my right hand," i. e., in the west, 
which in astronomical maps is at the right hand, " until I make 
thine enemies thy footstool." Winter and summer, always re- 
garded as mutual enemies, each alternately becomes the foot- 
stool of the other. Hence the Lord (Jahveh= summer) 
proposes to pass away and become the footstool of the Lord 
(Adonic winter). 

" The Lord (Jahveh) shall send the rod of thy strength out 
of Zion " (ship-Sun =Argo navis, or Noah's ark). Fuerst says 
Zion means a "barren mountain " = winter. The meaning is: 
When summer is past, winter comes on. It is then Adoni, 
Moses or Aquarius with his rod " rules in the midst of his ene- 
mies," the winter months. This may appear inconsistent to 
some, but it must be remembered that Adoni was killed by a 
wild ftoar=wmter (see Ovid's Meta., B. x, Fab. 10). Adoni 
is the same as the Tammuz of Ezek. viii, 14. Yerse 3 of 
this psalm is badly translated in James' version. In Baker's 
edition of the Bible it is : " Thy people shall come willingly 
at the time of the assembling of thine army in holy beauty 
(i. e., at the spring equinox, when the zodiacal constellations 
are in their normal positions at the beginning of the sacred 
year of the Jews) ; the youth of thy womb shall be as the 
morning dew," i. e., the people will be glad when spring shall 
come with its morning dews ! 

" The Lord (Jahveh) hath sworn (sevened), and will not re- 
pent," i. e., the seven summer months have passed and cannot 
be recalled. Therefore he (Jahveh) is a priest at the end of 
summer like Melchizedek (the holy, or summer king). 

"The Lord (Adoni) at the right hand of Jahveh, shall 



PSALMS. 493 

strike through kings in the day of his wrath," i. e., during 
winter. 

He will then judge among the heathen, the people of the 
earth, and will fill the places with the dead bodies (the summer 
constellations will go into the lower hemisphere, or we may 
say that many from want of proper food and clothing and 
other necessaries of life will die during the winter). 

He (Adoni still) will drink of the brook (fall rain) by the 
way, where he will lift up his head," i. e., at the beginning of 
winter. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

ISAIAH. 

IT is not known who wrote the book of Isaiah. The name 
Isaiah, compounded of isha and jah, means the Sun will 
save. Jahveh or the Sun is the same with the Jupiter of the 
Romans, the Zeus of the Greeks, and the Indra of the Hindus. 
Isaiah was a prophet, as were nearly all the prominent Bible 
characters; as, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, 
etc. His vision extended over the days of Uzziah, Jotham, 
Ahaz, and Hezekiah ; four names meaning nearly the same 
thing — the Sun in the summer hemisphere. 

Like the book of Psalms, this book of Isaiah has been 
variously divided, according to the different views of its several 
commentators. Calmet divided it into eight parts, whilst 
others would divide it into historical and prophetical only. 
Yitringa held to this latter division, but subdivided the pro- 
phetical into five principal sections. Adam Clarke thinks 
" God never left his work for man to mend," and that " no 
classification was ever intended." 

Tsabaism (from tsaba, "to rise up in splendor, as a star''') 
was, in the early history of the world, the almost universal 
worship. Arabian historians speak of it as the oldest religion, 
having been handed down from the earliest patriarchs (fathers 
of the arch) — from Adam, Enoch, Sabai, a son of Seth, etc. 
" The sun, moon and stars, the highest objects of the natural 
world, figuratively represent kings, queens, and princes or 
rulers." As all these, as I have conclusively shown, form the 
chief subjects of the previous books of the Bible, it will not be 
unreasonable to look for many notices or descriptions of their 
relations in the book next to come under review. And as all 
the phenomena pertaining to the stars cannot be observed in a 



ISAIAH. 495 

shorter time than a year, it was found convenient to divide this 
period into several parts — two at first, and afterward into 
three. These were called seasons. The latter number seems 
to have been adopted by the writer or writers of Isaiah. This 
I infer from Chap, ix, 12: " The Syrians (A_ram=those rising 
up) before, and the Philistines behind, shall devour Israel with 
open mouth," i. e., the Syrians or spring coming first, and the 
Philistines or winter last, Israel or summer being between the 
two, is swallowed up, as it were, as a matter of course. Now, 
as the Bible treats of the phenomena of the heavens and of the 
year, we may confidently look for a mythological description 
of these three seasons, which description shall, when brought 
forth to the light, be so exact and clear that the ordinary 
reader can't fail to see the truth. 

The first chapter of this book of Isaiah seems to be discon- 
nected with the main work, and serves merely as an introduc- 
tion, giving simply an outline of what will be found in the 
book itself. The Lord (summer) appealing to heaven and 
earth, i. e., swearing {sevening) by himself (the seven summer 
months), because there is no greater, declares he had " nourished 
and brought up children (the winter constellations) which had 
rebelled against him ; " who had left the " daughter of Zion," * 
i. e., Jerusalem, or summer, desolate ; as a besieged city, as a 
garden of cucumbers (as having but little substance=:the winter 
supply), yet that " very small remnant " kept them alive and 
from perishing like Sodom and Gomorrah. 

The season being winter, the Lord disliked their vain 
(empty) oblations, their sabbaths (winter being the true sab- 
bath), and new moons ; he would neither look upon them nor 
hear their prayers, because their hands were full of blood — 
dreary and desolate. Hence, before he would deal with the 
people, he would advise them to wash (rainy season) and clean 
up ; " cease to do evil " (to make the Earth barren), " learn to do 
well." Seek judgment, or the spring equinox, when " we will 
reason together ; though your sins be as scarlet (winter), they 
shall be white as snow." " Be willing and obedient, and ye 

*Zion bein^ the winter solstice, the "daughter of Zion " would represent the oppo- 
site, or summer solstice. 



49(5 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

shall eat of the good of the land " — of the summer products. 
But, if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured, etc. Here, 
overcome by the thought of his once prosperous and happy 
people, the Lord exclaims : " How is the faithful city become a 
harlot ! it was full of judgment ; righteousness lodged in it, 
but now murderers." Summer is faithful, because productive, 
while winter, unproductive, is likened to a harlot. But, though 
these princes (summer months) had become rebellious (passed 
away), and were companions of thieves, I, the Lord, will yet 
ease me of my enemies, will turn my hand upon them, " and 
purge away their dross and take away their tin," — winter be- 
ing likened to dross and tin, or the baser metals. Yes, Zion 
(winter solstice) shall be dismissed by those " that return of 
her (marginal reading) to righteousness," or summer. 

Chaps, ii, iii. I now come to the body of the book attrib- 
uted to Isaiah. " It shall come to pass in the last days," says 
the prophet, i. e., at the end of the year, at the spring equinox 
(the time being winter), " that the Lord's house shall be estab- 
lished in the top of the mountain " (summer solstice). " Out 
of Zion (ship-Sun = winter solstice) shall go forth the law (as 
in Moses' time), and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem 
(' which is above ')=the summer solstice. Then, i. e., in sum- 
mer, the people shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and 
their spears into pruning-hooks," i. e., they will then cease rob- 
bing one another as they did in the winter, and go to work to 
raise another crop, about which to quarrel the following win- 
ter; as at that time, and until recently, war implements were 
often used in summer for agricultural purposes. 

Anon ; he (the Sun) prophesies of destruction and ruin to 
the people : " Judah (spring) is fallen ; the shew of their coun- 
tenance doth witness against them" (iii, 8, 9). "Woe unto 
their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves," i. e., 
in going into the winter hemisphere. " The daughters of 
Zion (Virgo in winter) are haughty (up in the winter hemi- 
sphere), and walk with stretched-forth necks (Yirgo flies 
through space head foremost), binding back their feet (of 
course her feet will follow her). Therefore the Lord (Adoni, 
Pinto, or the Sun in winter) will smite with a scab the crown 



ISAIAH. 497 

of the head of Zion's daughters, and the Lord (Jahveh, or 
Jupiter, or the summer Sun) will discover their secret parts" 
(iii, 17), i. e., Yirgo rises and sets head first ; as she rises, the 
Adoni, or the winter Lord smites her head ; as she sets, being 
half below the western horizon in spring, her heels sticking 
up, Jahveh, or the summer Lord, discovers her " secret parts," 
and has, as it was supposed, sexual intercourse with her ! and 
all nature becomes fecundated ! The memorial of this "secret" 
discovery is still perpetuated in our almanacs, the day being 
called annunciation or Lady-day — the 25th of March. Thus 
it came that in that day the Lord (Adoni, not Jahveh) took 
away all her ornaments, and being thus left desolate, " she sat 
upon the ground " (iii, 26), i. e., became a night constellation, 
at the end of winter. 

Chap. iv. "And in that day (the summer of seven months, 
when Yirgo sits on the ground) seven women (Yirgo in each 
of these months) shall lay hold of one man (the Sun, or 
Earth), saying : We will eat our own bread and wear our own 
apparel (summer is self-supporting), only let us be called by 
thy name, to take away our reproach (the barrenness of win- 
ter). Then, i. e., during the summer, the fruit of the Earth 
shall be excellent and comely for the escaped of Israel, — the 
crops will show well at the end of summer. " The escaped of 
Israel" are Leo, Yirgo and Libra, which (the year being 
divided into two seasons) are placed on the summer side. 
These, with Scorpio, make up the season of the year named 
Israel, or summer. The Sun, entering Scorpio, goes into win- 
ter quarters; hence Scorpio is not among "the escaped of 
Israel " (iv, 2). " He that is left in Zion (Scorpio, on the win- 
ter, or Zion side of the year), and they that remain in Jerusa- 
lem (Leo, Yirgo, Libra, on the summer side of the } 7 ear) shall 
be called holy, because they are written among the living," or 
summer months (v. 3). 

At verse 4 we again enter the winter season, though the 
English text does not show the fact very plainly. The He- 
brew, however, will aid us to bring out the sense of the pas- 
sage quite clearly : When the Lord (Adoni, or Hercules) shall 
have purged away the filth (ordure) of the daughters of Zion, 
32 



498 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

i. e., when the rains and frosts of winter shall have destroyed 
the rotten vegetation, and the miasm thence arising, which 
have accumulated during the last months of summer, or, in 
other words, when Hercules shall have cleansed the Augean 
stables ; then the Lord (Jahveh) will create upon mount Zion, a 
cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a naming fire by 
night," that the Israelites may go out from Egypt and the 
Philistines, as in Ex. xiii, 21. 

Chap. v. Having escaped winter (iv. 5), songs of an amor- 
ous and cheerful nature come with spring, and continue 
through summer. In winter they take a different turn — 
become lugubrious. Hence the several complexions of the 
song of this chapter. Vineyards are planted in the spring, 
hence Judah (spring) is the Lord's "pleasant plant," while 
" the house of Israel " (summer) is his vineyard (v. 7). Join- 
ing house to house, i. e., month to month, spring and summer 
soon pass away, and the houses of desolation (winter months) 
soon follow (v. 8), when the people regard not the work of the 
Lord (summer). Therefore my people have gone into captivity 
(winter), and "Hell hath enlarged herself" (v. 14). But never 
mind, " the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment " (at 
the spring equinox), and the El= Aries, which here becomes 
" new, fresh, young" (see Fuerstfs Heo. Lex., word hadesh, p. 
1221), shall be consecrated (or shined upon by the Sun) in 
righteousness, i. e., during the following summer. " Then 
shall the lambs (Aries during summer) feed after their man- 
ner," i. e., the crops will grow. Therefore, " Woe unto them 
that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, 
and light for darkness " — that invert the order of the seasons 
and so produce nothing. Against all such the anger of the 
Lord (Jahveh) is kindled, and will not be turned away. "He 
will lift up an ensign (the summer in passing brings up Scorpio) 
to the nations" and will hiss unto them from the end of the 
earth, i. e., from the end of summer, and during the winter, 
when they " shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and 
in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns " (vii, 19). 

Chap. vi. This chapter is unique and without parallel. It 
has never been commented upon in a way calculated to bring 



ISAIAH. 499 

out its true sense and import ; no one being capable or honest 
enough to do thus except the non-beneficiary. I proceed to 
unfold its mysteries. 

"In the year that king Uzziah (the summer Sun) died, 
Isaiah (the Savior, born at the winter solstice) saw the Lord 
(Adoni, the winter Sun, or Pluto,) sitting upon a throne, high 
and lifted up (Sun at winter solstice), and his train (the sum- 
mer constellations which were drawn after him) filled the 
temple (the opposite or summer hemisphere). Hence, the 
time, as it appears from the text, was mid- winter, and as the 
summer solstice is exactly opposite that of winter, the prophet 
(the Sun) saw in his dream= winter, the seraphim (from saraph 
— to burn, hence seraphim = the six summer, or burning 
months) standing above, or over it (Adoni's or Pluto's throne 
= winter solstice). Each seraph (thirty days) had six wings ? 
two for each of its ten days, or decans (whence our word 
deacon, as this officer is called). Each, of course, had head, 
body and feet, or beginning, middle and end. They cried one 
to another, " Holy, holy, holy " (once for every decan) is the 
Lord of hosts (Jahveh of the summer months), and the door 
posts (cardinal points) moved at the voice of him that cried, 
and the house was filled with smoke (the pillar of cloud of the 
Exodus, and the foggy days of winter). 

Poor Isaiah, being of unclean lips, was all but frightened 
to death ; he had seen, in imagination, or in his dream, the 
Lord (Jahveh) of hosts, and thought himself undone. " Woe 
is me ! for I dwell in the midst of an unclean people," i. e., he 
(the Sun) was in the middle of winter. However, one of the 
seraphim flew unto him and touched his lips with a live coal 
(the equinoctial Sun) which he had taken from the altar with 
his tongs (the two horizons — East and West), saying, " thine 
iniquity (Sun's S. declination) is taken away, and thy sin is 
purged," i. e., the Sun is at the spring equinox. 

While intent upon the glories he beheld, Isaiah, all at once, 
"heard the voice of the Lord (Adoni=Pluto, or Satan), saying, 
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" The young 
Savior replied : " Send me." And Adoni said : " Go, and tell 
this people: Hear ye, indeed, but understand not; and see ye, 



500 THE SCIENCE OP THE BIBLE. 

indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat 
(with good crops), and make their ears heavy, and shut their 
eyes, i. e., keep them in ignorance ; lest they see with their 
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their 
heart, and convert and be healed " (v. 10). Here, then, we 
have the precepts which priests of all ages have ever strictly 
inculcated to the very letter ! But who first uttered and gave 
them? Why, the Lord. Ah! and who was this Lord? The 
original Hebrew text (v. 8) says it was Adoni, who is the same as 
Pluto, Satan, or the Devil ! Why, to be sure ; and our Savior 
taught the very same doctrine (Matthew xiii, 13 ; Mark iv, 12 ; 
Acts xxviii, 26) by order of this same evil spirit, as hereby 
acknowledged ; for Isaiah and Christ are one and the same = 
the Sun. And this accounts for all the robbery, war, bloodshed 
and murder, with the rest of the immense catalogue of evils, 
which the devil and religion, alias ignorance, have ever heaped 
upon the human family. Let the reader ever bear in mind, 
then, that all religion has, by the testimony of the Holy Bible, 
Satan for its author. Disprove this who can. 

But Isaiah, though in himself was goodness itself, wanted 
to know how long he must follow these infernal instructions. 
Adoni (v. 11) "answered, Until the cities be wasted without 
inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land utterly 
desolate; and {Adoni still speaks) until the Lord (Jahveh, not 
Adoni) have removed men (the winter constellations) far away, 
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land ;" i. e., 
until the spring equinox, when the evils of winter pass away, 
and Adoni releases his hold upon the people ! 

The thirteenth and last verse seems to relate to the seed, 
which must be saved from the previous summer crop, to return 
(produce) food to the people ; for the teil (linden) and the oak, 
having cast their leaves, still retain the principle of life, though 
dormant through the winter. 

Chap. vii. This chapter sets out from the beginning of the 
year at the spring equinox. Ahaz, the Sun's ecliptic, is the 
king of Judah, or the first four months of the year. Kezin 
(delight) is also king of Judah. Pekah (open-eyed = summer 
solstice) is king of Israel, or the four months, July, August, 



ISAIAH. 501 

September, October. He is the son of Remaliah (the Sun 
adorns=the flowers of spring), because he follows spring. 
These Rezin and Pekah) went toward Jerusalem (summer 
solstice), but didn't take it, because they didn't get there, a 
very good reason, certainly ! 

However, David (the Sun), on being told that Syria (spring) 
and Ephraim (fruits = autumn) were confederate against him, 
was badly scared, for his heart moved as the trees before the 
wind. The signs of the zodiac were so many trees, which 
moved as the Sun moved, but in an opposite direction. The 
Lord (Jahveh) told Isaiah (savior-Sun) to go forth (from the 
spring equinox) with his son, Shear-jashub (returning-remnant = 
Libra and Scorpio, two of Israel's children yet above the hori- 
zon at sunrise) to meet Ahaz at the upper pool (the former 
rain, which came on when the Sun entered Scorpio) and tell 
him not to fear for, or because of, the two tails (ends) of these 
smoking firebrands (the two warm seasons). No matter if they 
(Syria and the son of Remaliah = Pekah) did take evil counsel 
against thee and try to set up a king in the midst of Judah — 
even the son (Scorpio) of Tabeal (the good Ram). For the 
Lord-God (Jehovah-Adoni = Sun at the fall equinox) saith it 
shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head (begin- 
ning) of Syria (spring) is Damascus (the East), and the head 
of Damascus is Rezin (delight), i. e., spring begins at the 
eastern equinox, and the season is one of delight. But yet it 
(Ephraim) within 65 years (days) shall be broken "from a 
people " (marginal reading), i. e., the season will be over half 
gone. Again : The head of Ephraim (spring) is Samaria 
(winter), and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son=Pekah 
(summer), taken retrospectively. If you don't believe, it's 
your own fault (v. 9). 

Ahaz, having given no heed to what Isaiah had said, the 
Lord (Jahveh) spake again unto Ahaz, saying : u Ask thee a sign 
(constellation) either in the depths (winter) or in the heights 
above (summer)." But Ahaz would not tempt the Lord (Jah- 
veh) ! So the Lord (Adoni) gave the proffered sign : " Behold, 
a virgin (Yirgo) shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call 
his name Immanuel " (the Ram is with us, — Aries comes to 



502 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

his meridian as the new year's Sun is born at the winter sol- 
stice. Thence the two journey together toward the north, 
meeting at the spring equinox=Sun in Aries). "Butter and 
honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil, and 
choose the good ; for before the child shall know to refuse the 
evil (winter) and choose the good (summer), the land (winter) 
that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings (vv. 15, 
16), i. e., the winter will end. 

D'besh, here translated "honey," means a collection = the 
winter stores. " Libations of honey," says Faber, " were wont 
to be poured out to the infernal gods " (Pag. Idol., Yol. iii, p. 
220). Honey was, therefore, a symbol of winter. This may 
be inferred from the frequent phrase — "a land flowing with 
milk and honey," i. e., the productive land = summer, since 
winter is unproductive. Jupiter, let us remember, was fed 
during his infancy, with goat's milk (Capricorn) and honey. 
" The Lord shall bring upon the people days that have not 
come " (v. 17). Wonderful ! that day should follow day. 

"It shall come to pass in that day when (not 'that,' as 
supplied by the translators,) the Lord (Jahveh) shall hiss for 
the fly (hunt bees) that is in the uttermost part of the rivers 
of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria (spring). 
After this they will come into desolate vallies," etc., i. e., winter 
will begin. Then, in that same day, shall the Lord (Adoni) 
shave with a razor that is hired of the Assyrians (the frosts of 
winter) ; then shall a man (the Earth) nourish a heifer (the 
Moon, — see Faber, vol. iii, p. 220,) and two sheep (the second 
sheep= Aries setting). Then, too, everyone, i. e., the people, 
shall eat butter and honey, i. e., of their winter stores (vv. 
18-22). Then shall the land, which abounded with plenty 
(summer), be covered with briars and thorns (winter), and men 
will resort to the bow and arrow for food (vv. 23, 24). 

"On all the hills that shall be digged in the spring thorns 
and briars need not be feared, for oxen shall be produced " 
(Taurus of spring), and the season will yield its usual crop. 

Chap. viii. It is again spring, and the Lord (Jahveh) told 
Isaiah (the Sun) to take a great roll (the year) and write in it 
about Maher-shalal-hash-haz, haste-to-the-spoil, he speed s-the- 



ISAIAH. 503 

prey, i. e., having raised a crop we consume it, the time 
employed being a year. Isaiah proceeds without delay to obey 
the Lord's (Jahveh's) command. To this end, he took with 
him " faithful witnesses " — Uriah (the Sun's heat) and Zech- 
ariah (the fertilizing Sun), the son of Jeberechiah (blessing 
Sun), — and "went unto the prophetess " (Yirgo), i. e., the Sun 
passed from the spring over to the end of Yirgo, or to the fall 
equinox. During this time she conceived and bare a son. The 
Lord (Jahveh) said, call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz=the 
summer crops. The fourth verse tells us these crops, which 
were the riches of Damascus (spring) and the spoil of Samaria 
(winter) shall be carried to or before the king of Assyria= 
spring, before the child would know enough to cry " my father 
and my mother," i. e., they would be consumed by the next 
spring. 

The Lord (Jahveh) spake again, saying : Because this 
people refuse the waters of Shiloh (summer solstice), that go 
softly (the gentle rains), and rejoice in Rezin (spring) and 
Eemaliah's son (Pekah= summer), therefore the Lord(Adoni= 
the winter Sun) bringeth upon them waters strong and many 
(the rainy season of winter). These shall overflow the land, 
even to the neck (of Taurus, where Moses struck the rock a 
second time), thus filling thy land, O Immanuel, up to the 
second month, as Noah's flood did. Therefore, do what you 
will, O people ; take counsel together and it will come to 
nought (the end of the year), for God (Aries) is with us (v. 10). 

The people, having waited upon the Lord (Jahveh) until 
he had hidden his face from the house of Jacob, i. e., until 
after mid-summer, began to stumble and fall and get taken 
into the winter hemisphere (v. 15). Seeking the Lord of hosts 
(summer), they now found he dwelt in Mount Zion (winter 
solstice). Here, on being told they must seek for familiar 
spirits (oJ<?^=bottles=Aquarius=Moses, the great necro- 
mancer and prophet,) and unto wizards (the new year) that 
peep and mutter (as children), they thought it time to seek the 
living Gods (Elohi, or Sun-rams of summer), — the living, 
instead of the dead Gods. 

Therefore, " to the law and to the testimony,' 1 i. e., setting 



504 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

out from the winter solstice, or the Sun's greatest south declina- 
tion, which is the beginning of the law and the testimony, 
they move on. Now, if they speak not or move according to 
this word, there will be "no morning" (spring) for them. 
They will pass through (the winter) hardly bestead and 
hungry; they shall curse against their king (summer) and 
against their Gods (Elohi), looking upward, but, downward, 
they shall behold trouble and darkness = winter (v. 22). 

Chap. ix. The preceding chapter ends with the word 
darkness, by which, as has often been seen, winter is meant. 
And though the people walked in darkness, they beheld a 
great light (the Sun) ; though they dwelt in the land of the 
shadow of death (winter), '* upon them hath that light (the 
new year's Sun) shined" (v. 2). " For their yoke (mid-winter) 
is broken and passed, and unto us a child is born ; unto us a 
son (Sun) is given." " The government shall be upon his 
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful (phala), 
Counsellor, the Mighty Ram," etc., i. e., Samson, or the Sun, 
the Prince of Peace. 

" The Lord (Adoni) sent a word unto Jacob (spring), and it 
hath lighted upon Israel (summer). My reader must never 
confound the two Lords — Jahveh and Adoni — the first always 
representing summer, the last, winter. In the example before 
us, Adoni sent his word unto Israel ; hence, the time was 
winter, when "the bricks (of the temple, or summer,) are 
fallen down " (v. 10). " Therefore, the Lord (Jahveh) shall set 
up the adversaries of Rezin (spring, i. e., the winter constella- 
tions will take their places above the equinoctial line,) and join 
his enemies," the summer and winter. " Then, with the 
Syrians (spring) before and the Philistines (winter) behind " 
(both meeting at the spring equinox), Israel (summer) will be 
swallowed with open mouth, i. e., the summer constellations, 
Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, will be, at the time spoken of, one- 
half above and one-half below the western horizon at sunrise, 
and exactly between spring and winter, " swallowed with open 
mouth " (v. 12).* Hence it happened that the Lord (Jahveh) 
cut from Israel both head and tail (Leo and Scorpio), branch 

* See the Zodiac. 



ISAIAH. 505 

t 

and rush (Yirgo and Libra), in one day = the equinoctial of 
spring. Leo is the ancient and honorable; Scorpio is the tail, 
is the liar, or rather, the father of lies= Satan (v. 15). The 
time being spring, the Lord (Adoni) has no joy in their young 
men (the -first days of the season). Wickedness (winter) now 
burns as the fire burns thorns and briars, and is consumed 
(v\ 18). "Through the wrath (heat) of the Lord (Jahveh = 
summer) is the land darkened," i. e., when summer passes, 
winter succeeds ; when no man shall spare his brother " (v. 19). 
As savages, men shall snatch on the right hand and on the left, 
and still go hungry. " Every man shall eat the flesh of his 
own arm," — each furnishes for himself both meat and drink. 

Manasseh (winter) shall be against Ephraim, the one sup- 
plying flesh, the other fruit ; both, however, are against Judah 
(spring), which furnishes the cereals = bread. 

Chap, x.- Unrighteous decrees (v. 1), turning aside from 
judgment (v. 2), the day of visitation and destruction (v. 3), all 
these, as winter, bow down the people as prisoners in dark- 
ness (winter). Woe is to the Assyrian, for it is winter, when 
savage people become lawless and spoil the spoilers, and prey 
upon the preyers, i. e., mutual robbery reigns (v. 6). The 
people do not really mean so, nor do they think it right, but 
necessity compels them to act thus (v. 7). For, is not Calno 
as Carchemish, Hamath as Arpad, and Samaria as Damascus ? 
i. e., is it not the beginning of winter, when the Sun is in 
Sagittarius?* Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the 
Lord (Adoni) has performed his whole work upon Mount Zion 
(winter solstice) and on Jerusalem (the lower), I will punish 
(consume) the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria 
(spring), and the glory of his high looks (v. 12). 

Therefore shall the Lord (Adoni), the Lord (Adoni) of 
hosts (the winter months), send among his fat ones, leanness. 
The flocks, usually fat at the beginning of winter, become lean 
before spring (v. 16). Though it is now winter — cold weather 

* At the beginning of the winter season of four months. Sagittarius meets the Sun in 
the east, the same as Aries does in spring. These four winter constellations are then just 
below the eastern horizon, the four summer constellations just above it, and the four 
spring constellations between the two, half above and half below the western horizon. 
Two sets of names for the three seasons are here used, to the contusion of the reader. 



506 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

— the " briars and thorns," emblems of winter, shall be de- 
voured in one day (the equinoctial of spring*). Then it shall 
come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel (Leo and 
Yirgo), and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob (spring), 
shall no longer remain upon the bed (lower hemisphere) of him 
that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord (Jahveh), i. e., 
summer wilJ come on. The remnant of Israel (Libra and 
Scorpio), as also that of Jacob (Gemini and Cancer), shall 
return unto the mighty God (El-gaber = strong, or summer 
Ram). " The consumption decreed shall overflow with right- 
eousness " (good crops). This the Lord-God of hosts {Adorn 
Jahveh tsabaoth— the division line of spring) shall determine 
(v. 23). Therefore, says the Lord-God of hosts (Adoni Jahveh 
tsabaoth), or the Sun at the spring equinox, Be not afraid of 
the Assyrian ; though he smite thee with a rod, he will lift up 
his staff for thee, i. e., fine weather and good crops will follow 
(v. 24). For yet a little while, and the indignation (bad weather) 
will cease (v. 25), when the Lord of hosts will bring a scourge 
(the plague) for him (Moses) according to the slaughter of 
Midian (spring) at the rock Oreb (the zenith), to which Aqua- 
rius (Moses) comes as the Sun enters Taurus (see Jud. vii, 25). 
The burden, or yoke (winter), shall be destroyed at the 
anointing (spring equinox). The Sun having come to Aiath 
(end of the year), will proceed to Migron (summer solstice, or 
his northern tropic), and at Michmash (fall equinox), will lay 
aside his equipage (summer heat). The people, being beyond 
the passage (fall equinox), lodge in Geba (the hill, or winter 
hemisphere). Raman (high hill) is afraid ; and Gibeah (sum- 
mer) is fled (v. 29). Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim 
(zodiacal Yirgo, which rises in autumn), make it heard unto 
Laish (Scorpio), O poor Anathoth (answers = fall equinox, 
which answers, or is opposite the spring equinox), Mad-menah 
(dung-hill, a town of Benjamin =fall equinox) is removed, and 
the inhabitants of Gebim (the cisterns=the rainy season) gather 
to flee (to turn the southern tropic). He shall remain at Nob 
(the tropic) one day ; then he will shake his head against 
(opposite) Jerusalem (summer solstice), the daughter of Zion 

* Moses 1 burning bush. 



ISAIAH. 507 

(the solstices are alternately the sons or daughters of each 
other). 

" Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts {Adoni-JaJiveJi 
tsabaoth), or the winter Sun, shall humble the haughty (sum- 
mer). He will hew the thickets (constellations) of the forest 
(zodiac) with iron (winter) and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty 
one" {-El). 

Chap. xi. The preceding chapter left us in winter. Here 
the rod (shoot, or new year Sun) is to start from the stump of 
Jesse (the existing Sun, the Sun at his farthest south declina- 
tion). Hence the spirit of the Lord (Jahveh) shall rest upon 
him (Jesse), the summer solstice being exactly opposite. " He 
shall not judge after the sight of his eyes," but he will judge 
the poor (winter) w T ith righteousness (summer), and that 
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins (the crops — the 
Sun gets to the loins of the man in the almanac, about harvest 
time), i. e., all will be rewarded according to their labor (v. 5). 
But he will smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth, slaying 
the wicked with his breath (v. 4). This brings us around to 
winter. 

We now encounter a series of prophesies the most astound- 
ing in the Bible, i. e., taken literally, as usually taught by our 
clergy. That contained in vv. 6, 7 of this chapter, in relation 
to certain animals of the most discordant dispositions and 
natures — the wild, the savage and the ferocious, as the wolf, 
the leopard and the lion, against the gentle, the mild and the 
peaceful, as the lamb, the kid and the calf — the carnivorous 
against the herbivorous, is the one usually harped upon with a 
gusto really sickening to the intelligent. Little children, too, 
mingle with them without danger. Now the idea that all 
these animals of the most opposite natures should lie down in 
peace together — the carnivorous all at once becoming tame, 
gentle and straw-eating as the ox, is the most preposterous 
that could enter the brain of infatuated man. The thing is 
utterly impossible, and demonstrates but too well the frightful 
extent to which the fraudulent are willing to degrade the 
industrious in order to live off of them. Literally true the 
account cannot be. How, then, shall it be understood? My 



508 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

astronomical system will make all plain and intelligible. The 
constellation Lupus (the wolf) rises as a paranatellon of Scor- 
pio, i. e., the two rise together. At sunrise, then, the Sun 
entering Scorpio, the wolf (Lupus) and the lamb (Aries) 
" dwell together " just below the horizon, but opposite each 
other. Thus the time was at the beginning of winter. The 
calf (Taurus) and the kid in Auriga and the fatling, an indefi- 
nite idea, which may apply to any small fat animal, as JS T oah's 
dove (Columba), and the young lion (Leo) and the leopard all 
lie doion together in the winter hemisphere, where they are led 
by " a little child " (Ganymede, Moses, Jesus, or the new year's 
Sun). 

At the coming of spring, the cow (Taurus) and the bear 
(Ursa major) are " green together" and " their young ones shall 
lie down together " — copulate f Who knows but by a miscon- 
struction of the Hebrew text, one of the greatest miracles (the 
gendering of the cow with the bear) has been overlooked? 
Will not some of our worthy clergy look to this at once? 
Josephus tells us that at one time at the passover feast (the 
time here spoken of) "a heifer, about to be sacrificed by the 
high priest, brought forth a lamb " ( Wars, vi, 5). Why not 
produce a bear-cub as well? Herodotus also informs us that in 
the time of Xerxes, " a mare brought forth a hare ! " (B. vii, 57). 

But " the lion shall eat straw like the ox." u The lion-" 
typifies the Sun in winter, which, by metonomy, eats straw 
like the ox. " The sucking child " (the Sun between the win- 
ter solstice and spring equinox, which equals the time Moses' 
mother nursed him) shall play on the hole of the asp (the last 
half of winter) ; " the weaned child " (the Sun during summer) 
shall stretch his hand over the cockatrice's den (mearoth tsiphon 
= enlightened ?w??^A= summer, which is opposite to or over 
winter = cockatrice's den).* " They shall not hurt nor destroy 
in all my holy mountain " = summer. No; for the period of 
destruction (winter) is past ; the time of renovation and repa- 
ration has come ; hence the earth shall be full of knowledge of 
the Lord (Jahveh = summer), as the waters cover the sea, i. e., 
the crops of summer. 

* See under chap, lix, where a fuller explanation is given. 



ISAIAH. 509 

"And in that day," the crops being matured at the equi- 
noctial day of autumn, there shall be a root (not a branch, as in 
spring) of Jesse (Sun in winter), which shall be a sign to the 
people that the Lord (Adoni= winter Sun) will " set his hand 
again the second time to recover the remnant of his people 
(Libra and Scorpio). At the fall equinox the Sun first enters 
Libra and afterward Scorpio, two constellations of Israel or 
summer, which remain below the equator at the time named 
above, and so recovers the remnant of his people from Egypt 
or winter. These same constellations coming in conjunction 
with the Earth, as in spring, the Lord (Jahveh) forsakes them 
and delivers them over to their enemies. 

Chap. xiii. Passing chap, xii, which is a mere song of joy, 
because of the presence of summer, I next come to the burden, 
oracle, or prophecy of, or concerning Babylon, or winter ; for 
this myth of the year, which I have all along been dealing 
with, must be made to assume every conceivable form. 

Isaiah (the Saviors the Sun), the son of Amoz (the zodiac), 
is the seer or prophet. The noise of the nations of the moun- 
tains (summer months) comes from the end of the heaven of 
the Lord (Jahveh), with the weapons of his indignation (the 
winter) to destroy the whole land — to stop the growth of veg- 
etation (v. 5), and to lay the land desolate, i. e., to deprive it 
of the direct rays of the Sun (v. 9). Therefore, howl ye; for 
the (last) day of the Lord (Jahveh = summer) is at hand; "it 
shall come as a destruction from the Almighty " (v. 6). This 
last sentence gives but an imperfect idea of the original heshod 
mishaddai jabo=" it shall come according to the failure of the 
breasts;" thus implying the gradual cessation of the summer 
crops; when " they shall be afraid, pangs and sorrows shall 
take hold of them " (v. 8). 

" This (equinoctial day) of the Lord (Jahveh) cometh cruel, 
both with wrath and fierce anger" (v. 9); for the constella- 
tions, i. e., the six summer constellations, shall not give their 
(summer) light, the Sun shall be darkened (as in winter), and 
the moon shall not cause her light (but that of the Sun) to 
shine (v. 10). Thus will I, by the hardships of winter, punish 
the world for their evil, i. e., for getting into the winter hemi- 



510 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

sphere. Behold, I will stir up the Medes (middle days, or 
such as partake of winter and summer) against them, which 
shall not regard silver (summer) ; and as for gold (spring), they 
shall not delight in it, for the time will be winter, the iron ao-e 
(v. 17). 

At v. 19 we come to the prophecy of the destruction, or 
end of Babylon or winter. In her last days, i. e., at the end 
of winter, Babylon, " the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chal dees' excellency," shall be as (it was) when God (Elohim=" 
Aries in summer) overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah (winter), i. e., 
it shall remain as it was when Sodom and Gomorrah were over- 
thrown. The question will naturally arise : What was Baby- 
lon's condition at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah? 
Was Babylon the same as Sodom and Gomorrah? Of course, 
the ordinary reader thinks it was destroyed as were Sodom and 
Gomorrah, and the text seems to bear out that idea. If de- 
stroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were, then must the same 
phenomena have happened. There must have been a shower 
of fire and brimstone, and somebody's wife must have been 
turned into a pillar of salt, etc. (see Gen. xix, for the details). 

Again : If it was to remain as Sodom and Gomorrah, then, 
since there are left no traces of these cities, there can be none 
of Babylon. This idea is well supported by Dr. Adam Clarke, 
who relates — "that by the concurrent testimony of modern 
travelers, no remains, not the least traces of these prodigious 
works, are now to be found " (comment, in loco.) Babylon 
(bab=gate; el— ram; on^Sun, the gate of the Ram-Sun, or 
Eloh=winter solstice) was a mythological city, like all Bible 
cities. The name may have been transferred to Earth, as in 
other instances, Heliopolis (Sun-city), etc., for example. 

Of course, time past can " never be inhabited," except by 
creatures of the imagination ; " doleful creatures," as satyrs, 
etc. The owls or ostriches must be left out, as they are not 
mentioned in the Hebrew text. 

Chap. xiv. Babylon destroyed, i. e., winter passed, spring 
will succeed, when the Lord (Jahveh) will have mercy on Ja- 
cob (spring), and choose Israel (summer) and set them in their 
own land. Strangers (outsiders) shall be joined with them, 



ISAIAH. 511 

i. e., at the proper time winter will appear, and they shall 
cleave unto the house of Jacob, i. e., these three seasons will 
complete the year. Israel shall possess them in the land of the 
Lord (summer), and shall take them captives, whose captives 
they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors, i. e., as 
summer comes, winter goes. Thus the Lord shall give Israel 
rest from his sorrow (winter), and he shall exclaim against the 
king of Babylon (the winter Sun): — Ah, how hath the op- 
pressor fallen ! — ceased to demand the golden days of spring, 
the gold of Ophir (v. 4). The Lord hath broken the staff of 
him (winter) who smote the people — of him who persecuted, 
but is now persecuted in turn. The whole earth is now quiet — 
"at rest" (summer solstice) ; "they break forth into singing" 
(v. 7). "The fir trees rejoice" — put forth buds, etc. Yet 
Hell underneath is moving against thee to meet thy going 
(summer goes, winter comes) ; it (Hell) is bringing up the 
shades of the "goats" (Capricorn) out of the earth against 
thee. All they (the "goats," — see marginal reading) shall 
ask — art thou weak like us? Ah, yes! thy pomp is fallen 
down to the grave (Sheol, winter). How art thou fallen from 
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut 
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations ! For 
thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven ; I will 
exalt my throne above the "stars of God" {El\ I will sit upon 
the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north ; I 
will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like the 
most high (Sun at the summer solstice). Oh, what a correct, 
beautiful, and poetical description of Yenus as she passes from 
evening to morning star ; and " Oh, how necessary it is to un- 
derstand the literal meaning of scripture that preposterous 
comments may be prevented " (Dr. Adain Clarke, in loco). 
Of course this famous commentator interpreted this famous 
passage of holy scripture right, only he failed to write it down 
and publish it. But let me seek the meaning in my own 
way. Yenus is an interior planet, i. e., she is situated be- 
tween the Sun and the Earth. This the ancients understood. 
In changing from evening to morning star, Yenus must pass 
from the east to the west of the Sun. This she does at her 



512 



THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 




inferior conjunction B, as shown in the diagram, her superior 
conjunction being on the side of the Sun opposite that of the 

Earth A, as at D. Whether 
morning or evening star, she 
is always near the horizon, 
never departing above 47° 
from the Sun ; hence she is 
"cut down to the ground" 
(horizon). The Sun being in 
Capricorn, as above indicated, 
the Earth and Yen us would 
be in inferior conjunction in 
Cancer. Nevertheless Venus, 
being nearer the Sun than the 
Earth, would seem to the inhabitant of the latter, to be in 
Capricorn. Thus, as morning star and rising before the Sun, 
she would be above " the stars of God " (Aries on his meridian). 
When at her superior conjunction (Sun in Cancer), she sat 
upon the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north, 
and above the clouds. Thus she resembled the Most High. 
Descending thence, she wasted the nations (the days grew 
shorter), and was brought down to the sides of the pit, hell, or 
the infernal regions of the dead, or winter (v. 15). In her 
descent, she was narrowly watched to find if she is the man 
that made the Earth to tremble — that caused it to become a 
wilderness, desolated its cities, and opened not the house of its 
prisoners (v. 17). But the Lord of hosts hath purposed all 
this ; " it shall stand." 

Following the death of Ahaz, or summer, Isaiah prophesies, 
concerning "whole Pal estina," which may not rejoice because 
the rod (summer) that smote it is broken (gone), for out of the 
serpent's root (winter solstice, — do serpents have roots?) shall 
come forth a cockatrice (the Sun) whose fruit shall be a fiery 
flying serpent (the hot summer days). The first-born (the 
Sun) of the poor (winter) shall feed (upon the short days, i. e., 
the days shall lengthen,) and the needy, i. e., the passing 
days, shall lie down in safety ; and I (Isaiah) will kill thy 
root (winter solstice) with famine (want of the Sun's rays), 



ISAIAH. 513 

and he (the Lord) shall slay thy remnant (the last half of 
winter). 

Therefore, " howl, O gate ; cry, O city (winter solstice) ! 
thou * whole Palestina ' art dissolved (passing away), for there 
is coming from the north a smoke (the dust of Hezekiah's 
army = the summer days), and none shall be alone in his 
appointed times," i. e., the Sun in his course shall pass each 
zodiacal constellation in proper succession. Wherefore, then, 
shall anyone answer the national messengers (Philistines, — 
Fuerst) that the Lord (Jahveh) hath founded Zion (winter sol- 
stice), and the poor of his people (winter) shall trust in it. 

Chap. xv. Here comes the burden, or oracle of Moab 
( water-fa ther= Aquarius). In the night (winter) Ar of Moab 
(Earth in winter) is laid waste {dreary and desolate) and 
brought to silence (unproductiveness). This was bad, indeed ; 
Moab (the winter Sun) has gone to Bijath (the house; and to 
Dibon (wasted = winter solstice) to weep (rainy season), when 
Moab will howl over Nebo (winter solstice) and Medeba (the 
Hoods). Their heads shall be bald and their beards cut off 
(Earth in winter). Girded with sackcloth (winter emblem) 
they shall come howling (wind) and weeping (rain). Heshbon 
(Sun at winter solstice) and Elealeh (ascending Sun, and there- 
fore past the winter solstice,) shall cry, and their voice shall be 
heard to Jahaz (the bound of winter, or the spring equinox). 
Life shall be grievous and they shall flee to Zoar (the end of 
winter) as a heifer three years (months) old ; the reference is to 
Taurus, three signs from Aquarius or Moab. They shall mount 
the steps (the increase of the day's length) of Luhith (stairway) 
weeping (rainy season), and on arriving at Horonaim (the two 
hemispheres=spring equinox) they shall raise a cry of a break- 
ing up (see marginal reading). Spring passed, the waters of 
Nimrim (the Zeopards=ihe scattered clouds of summer) shall 
fail, the grass dries up and no green thing is left (v. 6). Hence 
whatever stores the people have on hand, they will carry into 
winter (erebim= dsirknes&= winter, not brook of willows). 
Hence, too, the cry of Moab (winter) extends to, or is between, 
Eglaim (the two ponds=the former and latter rains), and. to 
Beer-elim (the Earns' well = winter solstice). 
33 



514 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

The waters of Dimon (end of the year=the spring equinox) 
shall be full of blood (an Egyptian plague); and upon him 
who escapes Moab (winter), the Lord (Jahveh) will bring lions 
(arlah), says the text, but it is altogether probable that the 
reading should be uriah (Sun-heat), the u having been dropped 
by some careless transcriber. The change, however, amounts 
to nothing, as the lion has always been a symbol of heat. 

Chap. xvi. Send ye, Moab, send ye the lamb (Aries) from 
Sela (Rock = winter solstice) unto the mount (summer solstice) 
of the daughter (Jerusalem) of Zion (winter solstice). The 
daughters of Moab shall be at the crossings of Arnon (Yirgo 
becomes a night constellation at the spring equinox) as birds 
cast from their nest (v. 2). Bring counsel, execute judgment, 
i. e., let spring come ; then, O Moab, " make thy shade as the 
night in the midst of noonday ! " i. e., begone, get thee into 
Hades, Hell, or the home of shadows ! Take my outcasts (the 
winter days) with thee, for the spoiler (winter) ceaseth, — is at 
his end (v. 4). The throne (summer solstice) shall be estab- 
lished in mercy (warm weather), and he (the Sun) shall sit 
upon it in truth, in the tent of David (summer solstice), 
judging, seeking judgment and hastening righteousness, — the 
ripening crops (v. 5). The end of summer is coming, and we 
begin again to hear of the pride of Moab (winter). He is 
proud because of his recently gathered crops ; so of Pluto, the 
infernal God of riches of the Romans ; he is proud of his 
haughtiness (elevation above the equator) ; proud of his wrath 
(cold weather) ; but of his lies (barrenness) he shall not be 
proud. Thus, Moab, like many men, is proud because he 
possesses the property of another ! Therefore, shall Moab howl 
for Moab, for Moab everyone shall howl ; ye shall mourn for 
the foundations of Kir-haresh (winter solstice), for surely they 
are stricken down (v. 7). 

Heshbon (winter) and the vine of Sibmah (winter) languish 
— are unproductive. The lords of the heathen (five winter 
months — Philistines) have broken down their plants and 
come to Jazer (help of Aries= winter solstice, where the days 
begin to lengthen, hence help of Aries, then on his meridian). 
Therefore will I, Isaiah (the new-born Savior), weep with the 



ISAIAH. 515 

weeping Jazer, the vine of Sibmah (the rainy season). O 
Heshbon and Elealeh (winter solstice, with Aries turned off 
his meridian), I will water thee (thus Heshbon and Elealeh are 
one), for thy summer fruits and harvest are gone ; gladness and 
joy are removed from the plentiful field ; there's no singing in 
the vineyards; all these I (the winter Sun) have made to 
cease. Wherefore my bowels shall rumble from flatulency, and 
I shall become pot-bellied because of Moab (Aquarius) and 
Kir-haresh (the mid-winter Sun). When Moab wearies of his 
high place (Aquarius on his meridian), he will come down to 
his sanctuary (fall equinox) to pray, but he shall not prevail 
(Aquarius' or Moses' hand is down, and the days begin to 
shorten). Since that time (the fall equinox) the Lord (Jahveh) 
hath spoken concerning Moab, saying, within three years, as 
the years of a hireling, i. e., three months, men being usually 
hired by the month, the glory of Moab shall be contemned, 
i. e., the first half of winter will be past; the remnant, if any, 
will be very small and inglorious, i. e., the winter solstice 
turned, the days will begin to lengthen. 

Chap. xvii. The Burden, Oracle, or Prophecy of Damas- 
cus — Spring. The cities of Aroer (winter) are now forsaken. 
Damascus, or spring, shall follow, and in turn become a ruin- 
ous heap (v. 2) ; yes, the fortress of Ephraim (harvest) and the 
kingdom (spring) from Damascus and the remnant of Syria 
(spring) shall be as the glory of Israel — gone. Yes, the glory 
of Jacob (spring) shall pass away. It shall be as he that 
gathereth ears of corn in the valley of Eephaim (the abode of 
shadows), i. e., it shall exist in the imagination only. A few 
grapes may be left (v. 6). Then, indeed, shall a man look to 
and respect his Maker (the crops), the Holy One of Israel (the 
four summer months) ; he shall not look at the altars (the 
months already past) ; or the Sun-images (see marginal read- 
ing), for these strong cities shall be forsaken, and desolation 
(winter) shall follow (v. 9). And this because thou hast for- 
gotten the Gods (Elohi) of summer, who are the only salvation. 
When winter comes, woe to the multitude, but especially to 
those who through inability or neglect have failed to provide 
therefor. 



516 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Chap, xviii. This chapter is without title, but properly 
belongs to the preceding, which ends with verse 11 ; the last 
three verses, as Dr. A. Clarke rightly observes, having " no 
relation to the foregoing prophecy, or connection with what 
follows." It is said this chapter contains " one of the most 
obscure prophecies in the whole book of Isaiah." 

Let us see. " The shadowy land," over, or beyond, the river 
Cush, translated Ethiopia, is the winter land. Woe to this 
dark and dreary land, for it brings to the poverty-stricken, 
wretchedness, disease and death. It sends ambassadors (tsi?>im, 
from tsir, u to go in a circle" i. e., circle traveler s=t\\e constel- 
lations) by sea (the rainy season of winter), in vessels of bul- 
rushes, such as Moses was set adrift in. These ambassadors 
were sent " to a nation scattered (as in hunting) and peeled " 
(without provisions) ; to a nation made " terrible " by hunger ; 
a trodden-down nation (people in winter), whose land the rivers 
(the rainy season) have spoiled — made unproductive, as in 
winter. The words " scattered and peeled," may also be trans- 
lated " tall and shaven," as in reference to the bared earth in 
winter (v. 2). And, O ye inhabitants of the w T orld (year), and 
dwellers on the earth, " when he lifteth up an ensign on the 
mountains (of Ararat=Sun in Aries = spring), see ye;" and 
"when he bloweth a trumpet (Gabriel's=the March winds), 
hear ye," i. e., prepare for work — plant your vines, make 
wine, and get drunk like father Noah ! 

For the Lord (Jahveh), having taken his usual rest during 
the winter just passed, will henceforth prattle, as he sits upon 
his stool (summer) like a clear heat upon herbs, and as a dew 
in harvest time ; i. e., the Sun, through the medium of the 
atmosphere, will mature the crops (v. 4). Early in spring, and 
before harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is 
forming in the flower, let the vines be pruned, and remove the 
branches therefrom (v. 5). The sixth verse is one of some 
difficulty. Our vulgar translation, seems to me but nonsense ; 
Dr. A. Clarke passes it without remark. The following would 
appear to be a better translation : " The birds of prey shall 
loathe them" (the primings), and "the beasts of the earth 
(carnivorse) shall turn aside from (i. e., scorn) them." The 



ISAIAH. 517 

phrases, " fowls of the mountains," and " beasts of the earth," 
plainly point to the author's meaning. In the last verse, we 
are brought again to the people " scattered and peeled," whose 
land the rivers have spoiled ; to whom the present (the crops 
of summer) was brought ; and to Mount Zion (winter solstice). 
Chap. xix. The prophet here returns to his old subject 
under a new title — "the burden of Egypt" (mizraim— the 
two distresses, afflictions, or discomforts— the two halves of 
winter). The Lord (Jahveh) rides upon a swift cloud, and 
comes into Egypt, i. e., summer passes ; winter comes. Egypt's 
idols (JEHU, an intensitive of el— Aries on his meridian) shall 
nod before him, i. e., Aries will be exactly opposite the Sun ; 
and the heart (middle) of Egypt (winter) shall be divided in 
half, thus constituting the Catholic Hell and Purgatory ; the 
latter being the last half of winter, as denoted by the name of 
its last month — February, from the Latin februo, to purge 
(v. 1). Hence, Egyptians will be set against Egyptians, i. e., 
the lengthening of the days will follow the shortening ones, 
offsetting them ; kingdom will be set against kingdom — lower 
against upper Egypt — Purgatory against Hell (v. 2). "The 
spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof," i. e., the weather 
will moderate after mid-winter ; when the people will seek the 
murmurings {ha-ittim — the gentle breezes), and the oboth— 
water-skins = the spring rains, and the knowing ones, yadanim, 
i. e., the summer months. For this purpose, the Lord (Adoni) 
of the Lord (Jahveh) of hosts, i. e., the winter Sun, will deliver 
the Egyptians into the hand of cruel Lords (Adonim), and a 
fierce king (the hot Sun) shall rule over them. Hence, hot 
weather, drought, withering of the vegetation, failure of the 
fisheries, because of the low water, etc. Surely, the princes of 
Zoan (one who loads up, as the lengthening days) are fools, and 
the wise counselors of Pharaoh (winter) are become brutish, 
i. e., mixed, half and half; the Lord (Jahveh) has mingled 
a perverse (opposite) spirit — has tempered the winter air by 
the increasing heat of the season. Egypt, therefore, staggers, 
as if departing (v. 14). At the spring equinox, there is no 
work for Egypt, which the head (Leo) or tail (Scorpio) of 
Israel may do, i. e., winter is past (v. 15). Here, " head and 



518 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

tail," according to some, refer to the moon's nodes {Clarke 1 's 
Com., in loco). 

In that day (the equinoctial of spring) Egypt shall fear, be- 
cause of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts, which 
he shakes over it. Judah (the four spring months) also shall 
then begin his rule arid thus help to terrify Egypt. In that 
equinoctial day, too, five cities of Egypt (Scorpio, Sagittarius, 
Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, which are then above the 
horizon at sunrise) shall speak the language of the Canaanitish, 
or thrown-down cities=the five opposite constellations; and 
they shall swear to the Lord of hosts, i. e., they shall pass to 
the inferior hemisphere. One of them (Scorpio) shall be 
called the city of destruction, because as the Sun enters it, winter 
begins. An altar (the summer) is now set up for the Lord 
(Jahveh), and a pillar on the border thereof, i. e., Jacob's stone, 
which he called Beth-el, at the spring equinox (v. 19). When 
the Lord (Jahveh) sees this pillar, as he does every spring, he 
sends a Savior (the summer Sun) to deliver the people — to 
give them a crop (v. 20). The Lord (Jahveh) smites and heals 
Egypt, i. e., winter and summer alternate (v. 22). Assyria 
(spring) comes into Egypt (winter), and Egypt into Assyria, 
Israel (summer) being the third with regard to Egypt, i. e., 
these three seasons succeed one another in regular order 
(vv. 23, 24). 

At verse 25 we have a recapitulation of the three seasons: 
"Blessed be Egypt, my people (i. e., the people awaiting 
work), and Assyria, the work of my hands (the season of 
work), and Israel, my inheritance " (the crops ingathered). 

Chap. xx. Here Sargon (supreme head = Sun at the- begin- 
ning of the year) sent Tartan (tall person— Saul = the winter 
Sun) to fight against Ashdod or Azotus (winter). At the same 
time, the Lord (Jahveh) told Isaiah (the new year Sun) to go 
and take off the sackcloth from his loins (his middle=spring 
equinox), and "put off thy shoe from thy foot." Isaiah did 
so, walking naked and barefoot three years (months, from winter 
solstice to spring equinox), for a sign and wonder upon Egypt 
and Ethiopia (winter). In like manner, the king of Assyria 
(equinoctial Sun) bore away the Egyptian's prisoners and the 



ISAIAH. 519 

Ethiopian's captives (winter days) naked and barefoot, just as 
they were. Even their buttocks (the end of the year) were 
uncovered, to the shame of Egypt — the Earth every year 
comes out of winter naked, and winter ought to be ashamed 
of it. 

Nor must we forget that immediately winter is over spring- 
comes ; and, as spring with the ancients was the season of love, 
we may readily guess why their "buttocks" were "uncov- 
ered." Tartan is the name of a ship used in the Mediterra- 
nean ; also of a Scotch plaid, botli emblems of winter. Tartan 
was winter. He was related to Rabsaris (the eunuch, spring, 
or Manoah, who looks on while the angel of the Lord — Sun 
— does wondrously) ; also with Rabshakeh (great drinker= 
summer, or the dry season, — see 2 Kings xviii, 17). 

Chap. xxi. This chapter is made up of three parts, and 
has as many titles. They severally begin at vv. 1, 11 and 13. 

1. "The burden of the desert of the sea "= Babylon = 
Winter. It (winter) comes from a desert land — a terrible 
land. This treacherous dealer and spoiler comes every year as 
all know, when Isaiah's (the Sun's) loins are filled with pain, 
and he is bowed down (below the fall equinox to the winter 
solstice), where he ordered the princes (the stars) to arise and 
" anoint the shield " (the Earth, i. e., put a new crop on it). 

For thus hath the Lord (Adoni= winter Sun) said unto me, 
" Go, set a watchman ; let him declare what he seeth " (v. 6). 
This was done. Presently he saw three chariots, one of horse- 
men, one of asses, and one of camels — typical of the three 
seasons in their order; the horses, of spring; the asses, of sum- 
mer; the camels, of winter. The reason why these animals 
typify the three seasons, the ingenious reader can, if he has 
studied what precedes, supply for himself. Soon, again, he 
exclaimed, " a lion " (symbol of the summer Sun, and of mid- 
summer). Of this he was certain, because he had been at his 
post day and night (v. 8). Therefore seeing the two horsemen 
are come, he knew spring had come. Babylon was fallen and 
winter was past. So he could talk of farm work, and of what 
the Lord (Jahveh) of hosts and the Gods (Elohi) of Israel 
might say. 



520 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

2. "The burden of Dumah " (silence = the language of 
Babel, — see Babel). The watchman cried out of Seir (Capri- 
corn = winter solstice), the morning (summer) cometh and also 
the night (winter) — the year glides away. 

3. " The burden upon Arabia " (night, or winter). O ye 
wanderers of Dedanim {low grounds — winter). Dedanim is a 
reduplicate of the root dan, " to be low " (see Fuersfs Ileb. 
Lex., p. 316). The name was also written Dardanim {ibid, p. 
317), in allusion to Dardanus, the founder of the Trojan race. 
Changing the d to t, according to rule, the name becomes 
Tartanus, which, dropping the Latin termination, is the Tartan 
of chapter xx. Thus change the name as you will, so you con- 
form to the custom of the ancients and violate no rule of 
philology, the allusion is always to the winter season. The 
war of Troy was a description of winter. 

So the people lodged in the forests of Arabia (winter). The 
inhabitants of Tema (South, or winter) brought them water = 
the rainy season; bread having been furnished before their 
flight into Egypt (winter). For the Lord (Adoni) has said 
within a year all the glory of Kedar (the dark-one = winter) 
shall fail — pass away; his archers (Sagittarius) also shall fol- 
low him. The Lord (Jahveh) God (Elohi) of Israel hath 
spoken it. 

Chap. xxii. " The burden of the vallej^ of vision " (winter), 
"Winter is full of stirs, a tumultuous and jot/less city ; * the slain 
are not slain by the sword ; all thy rulers (summer months), 
bound together by the bow, or arch of summer, have fled, i. e., 
summer is past. Therefore Isaiah (the Sun) will weep bitterly 
because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people (the rape 
of Proserpine, or the Virgo of summer). As the iron age, in- 
justice or winter comes on, Virgo or "Astrsea leaves the 
plain," ascends into heaven, where she becomes Rahab, the 
harlot, or the scarlet women of Babylon — a day constellation. 
" Oh, it is a day of trouble and of treading-down, and of per- 
plexity, by the Lord (Adoni) God (Jahveh) of hosts (or the 
Sun at the fall equinox), in the valley of vision," or winter, 

* Joyless is the correct translation; for. though the word meaning joyous stands in the 
Hebrew text, it is used in " a bad sense " ( Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 1&H). 



ISAIAH. -321 

Elam (the eldest son of Shem, and first month of winter) bare 
the quiver (the arrows, or Sun's rays, being spent) ; Kir (depth = 
winter solstice) uncovered the shield (Earth) — destroyed vege- 
tation. But it shall come to pass that thy choicest valleys (the 
lower hemisphere) shall be full of chariots and horsemen (the 
summer constellations), " who shall array themselves at the 
gate" (spring equinox). Hence spring and the covering (har- 
vest) of Judah are reached ; next, the breaches of David (sum- 
mer solstice) and the houses of Jerusalem are numbered — 
summer ends, and the lower pool (the former rain of October) 
is overtaken. Then the Lord (Adoni) called to weeping 
(rain) and mourning (bad weather), and baldness (naked 
Earth), and girding of sackcloth (winter clothing). Oxen and 
sheep are slain (Aries and Taurus set), and "joy and gladness " 
prevail with the wise, industrious and prudent, for they, hav- 
ing provided plenty of meat and wine, maj^ eat, drink and en- 
joy the present, for to-morrow they shall die. Adonis now 
tells Isaiah that the iniquity (Sun's S. declination) will not end 
until the Snn reaches his southern tropic (v. 14). For this he 
refers him to his treasurer Shebna (youth = the Ganymede of 
the Greeks and Romans=the winter solstice), who had col- 
lected and laid up the amount of the Sun's S. declination, and 
then held it in his vault, or sepulchre, that he had hewed for 
himself in the rock (winter solstice) subject to the Lord's (Jah- 
veh's) order. The Lord, however, can't wait, but proceeds at 
once to carry both Shebna and his gold and silver (the same 
which Hiram aforetime took to Solomon) into a "mighty 
captivity," turning quickly, and tossing him (the Sun) up like 
a hall into a large country (the summer), where he will first 
cover him (the Earth), and then let him die, where the chariots 
of his glory (the winter constellations) will shame his Lord's 
(Adoni's) house, i. e., it will be summer, not winter. 

In that day, too (the winter solstitial day), I will call my 
servant Eliakim (raised-up Ram = Aries on his meridian), the 
son of Hilkiah (the summer Sun), and I will clothe him with 
thy robe (winter), and strengthen him with thy girdle (Sun's 
ecliptic), and I will commit thy government (the lengthening 
days) into his hand, and he shall be a father (each season is 



522 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

father to the following one) to the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
and the house of Judah (spring). The key I will lay upon his 
shoulder (it's a heavy key), and he shall open and none shall 
shut, and he shall shut and none shall open, i. e., the Sun will 
open and shut the year, Aries being the key. The nail upon 
which the Lord hung Eliahim, or Aries, was the winter solstice, 
a sure place, though movable somewhat by the precession of 
the equinoxes. 

Chap, xxiii. "The burden of Tyre," Troy, or winter. 
Tyre, in Heb. tsur~a rock=the winter solstice, or winter. 
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, i. e., howl, ye winter winds. Tar- 
shish (the broken land) is winter. Ships=Noah's ark, by which 
the sea, or rainy season of winter, is navigated. The land of 
Chittim or Hittim, both being the same (from ft f"J an d H 2> tne 
3 and pj being interchangeable) is the land of dread— winter. 
"Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle." " Isle " is winter, silence 
being one of its characteristics. The merchants of Tsidon 
(autumn), that pass over the sea (winter), have replenished 
you, i. e., like Joseph of Egypt, they have bought your season's 
produce, and are prepared to sell it back to yon, at the price of 
your liberty (Gen. xlvii). % " By great waters (the former rain) 
the seed of Sihor (blackness= winter) springs — is Sihor's rev- 
enue (the crops). In plain English, the produce of summer 
is bought, as we still see it, by speculators, from the people in 
the fall, to be retailed back to them in winter (v. 3). Of this 
Zidon, i. e., its people, ought to be ashamed, for in consequence 
of their neglect, the sea (the winter merchants) says: " I travail 
not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young 
men, nor bring up young virgins," i. e., the laborers support 
the merchants and their children in idleness ; and this report 
concerning Egypt and Tyre is painful — mortifying. 

Aha! is this your joyous city, whose "antiquity is of an- 
cient days?" Chaos was, before the creation, "the ancient of 
days " — was winter, the creation being summer (Gen. i). But, 
who has counseled against, or opposite to, Tyre? Why, the 
Lord (Jahveh), of course ; since the summer Sun is always op- 
posed to the winter Sun (v. 9). The Lord (Jahveh) destroyed 
the strongholds of the sea (winter), and said to the oppressed 



ISAIAH. 523 

virgin (Virgo below the equator), " Thou shalt no more re- 
joice ; arise, pass over to Chittim (i. e., into the upper hemis- 
phere, as at the beginning of winter), where thou shalt have 
no rest" (time waits not). 

"Behold, next, the land of the Chaldeans (spring) was not, 
until the Assyrian, step by step, lengthened the days and 
brought it about at the appointed time ; until then it did not 
exist. The Assyrian brought spring to the falling-down place 
(maphalah), or the summer solstice, when spring ended, and 
where the days begin to shorten (v. 13). Therefore, howl, ye 
ships of Tarshish, for your strength is gone (v. 14). Tyre 
(winter) shall be forgotten 70 years according to the days of 
one king. Hence these 70 years w r ere not common years, but 
were the seven summer months. At the end of summer, Tyre 
will sing like a harlot — become unproductive. At the end of 
these 70 years, i. e., at the end of summer, when the Lord 
(Jahveh) shall visit Tyre, she will return to her hire, and com- 
mit fornication, — bring barrenness upon the land. Her mer- 
chandise shall be for those that dwell before the Lord (Jahveh), 
i. e., for the use of the people in winter, which is before, or op- 
posite to, summer. 

Chap. xxiv. "Winter still ; for the Lord (Jahveh, or the 
summer Sun) makes the earth a waste, and turns it upside 
down, and winter ensues. In winter, all suffer alike ; no class 
can escape altogether the evils of winter, when the land is des- 
olate, and the earth mourneth; when the curse (winter) is 
upon us, and " the city of confusion " (v. 10) has broken in 
upon us. Wine is then in demand, to cheer the saddened 
heart, for " all joy is darkened, and the mirth of the land 
is gone " (v. 11). The people, glorify the Lord (Jahveh) in the 
fires ; i. e., in winter they use artificial heat, in place of that 
obtained from the Sun in summer, to keep out the " bitter, 
biting frost." 

But I (Isaiah) said : Oh, my leanness (weak rays) ; the treach- 
erous have dealt with me treacherously ; therefore, O inhab- 
itant, are you in the pit, it is no fault of mine (v. 17). You 
cannot escape, for the earth is utterly broken down — is clean 
dissolved ; i. e., is at the lowest point of its orbit (perihelion) 



524 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

— it is mid-winter, when the earth reels to and fro, like a 
drunkard, as if undecided which way to go. Ah ! it is here 
"the Lord (Jahveh) will punish the host of the high ones" 
(the summer constellations), i. e., they will appear over head 
in the night, where they are shut up in the pit (winter). But 
after many days, the Sun will revisit them (v. 22). 

Then the Lord (Jahveh) of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, 
in winter, in Jerusalem (the lower), before his glorious ancients 
(the summer constellations). The moon shall be reddened, and 
the Sun obscured, as in winter (see Fuersfs Heb. Lex., in busk). 
Zion (ship-Sun) is the winter solstice, and the Jerusalem in 
connection with it, is the lower town, and, of course, is opposite 
the summer solstice, or " the Jerusalem which is above " (see 
Gal. iv, 25, 20). 

Chap. xxv. Spring has returned ; and, O Lord (Jahveh), 
thou art my Gods (Elohi). I, Isaiah, or the Sun, will exalt 
(lift) thee up, and praise thee, for thou hast done wonderful 
things; " thou hast made of a city, a ruin." " Thou hast over- 
thrown Babylon," and turned the earth right side up again 
(xxiv, 1). " It shall never be built." Therefore, strong people 
(the summer constellations) glorify thee ; the terrible ones 
(winter constellations) fear thee. Thou hast helped the poor 
and needy (raised up the summer constellations), and brought 
the terrible ones (winter constellations) low; i. e., winter has 
passed. Therefore, in this mountain (spring equinox), the 
Lord of hosts will make a feast of fat things (passover) ; he 
will destroy the covering (the winter clouds), which was over 
the people, and will swallow up death (winter) in victory 
(the return of spring); will wipe away the tears from all 
faces — the gloom of winter will be replaced by joyous spring 
(v. 8). 

In that day (the equinoctial of spring) it will be said : Be- 
hold, these are our Gods (Elohi =Sun-Kams). We have waited, 
oh, how long we have waited ! but, never mind, it is now 
spring, and oh, how glad we are ; and how we rejoice in their 
(the Sun-Rams') salvation ! The Lord (Jahveh) now rests in 
this mountain (summer), but Moab (winter) is trodden down 

— trodden down as straw for a dung-hill, and oh, how glad we 



ISAIAH. 525 

are ! The word dung-hill symbolizes winter, because dung-hills 
are commonly made in winter. 

Chap. xxvi. Here the song is of Judah (spring). " Open 
ye the gates (spring equinox) that the righteous nation (sum- 
mer) may enter in. In the Lord Jehovah (Jah- Jahveh) is 
everlasting strength, which supplies all necessaries, both for 
summer and winter. The Lord inaugurates righteousness, and 
brings down the lofty ones (the winter constellations begin to 
set in spring). 

In the night (winter) I desired the Lord (Jahveh = sum- 
mer), and now he is come — is here, and I (the Sun) will seek 
him early (v. 9). The wicked will not learn righteousness, 
though favored; when the Lord's (Moses') hand is up, they 
will not see ; i. e., when the Sun rises on the spring equinox, 
the winter constellations are above the horizon, and invisible ; 
but when his hand is down, i. e., after sunset, they rise and 
become visible. " They shall be ashamed," i. e., shall show 
themselves. 

Though other lords (Adonim) have had dominion over us 
(v. 13), thou, O Lord (Jahveh), wilt now ordain peace (sum- 
mer) among us. Thou hast destroyed the "cruel lords" (xix, 
4), and increased the nations — winter is passed, summer has 
come. Thus in time of trouble, i. e., when the wicked Lord 
(Adoni) has us, then, Lord (Jahveh), we must seek thee (v. 16). 
But, O Lord (Jahveh), thou knowest we have been in trouble, 
in great pain, like as a woman that draweth near her time ; 
yes, Lord, we have travailed in great pain, and yet, who'd have 
thought it? "we have, as it were, brought forth wind" — the 
changing monsoon of spring; we haven't wrought any salva- 
tion as yet, for vegetation is but just starting (v. 18). Thus 
do I explain this hitherto unexplained, ridiculous and obscene 
passage of holy, or sunny writ ! 

In spring, Nature is renewed ; the dead, as it were, come to 
life, awake and sing ; for behold the Lord (Jahveh) cometh — 
is coming (v. 21). 

Chap, xxvii. Spring is continued. "In that day," the 
equinoctial day of spring, the Lord (Jahveh), with his great 
and strong sword (A^J=summer) shall punish leviathan, 



526 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

u that crooked serpent " (the winter segment of the year), and 
dragon of the sea (winter). Then you may sing unto heir 
(spring) which is likened to a pleasant vineyard. The Lord 
(summer) will keep it, both night and day, for there is now no 
fury in him. Still, if "briers and thorns" (winter) are set 
before him, he (the summer Sun) will burn them, for the Lord 
( Jahveh) makes peace — " conquers peace." 

Jacob (spring) shall now " take root," and Israel (summer) 
shall blossom and bud, and fill the earth with fruit. Summer 
and winter are opposed, and each, as it were, smites the other 
(v. 7). The rough or winter wind is stayed in the spring, and 
the east wind is turned into a west wind, and so is Jacob 
(spring) purged (v. 9), i. e., summer returns, and winter, being 
forsaken, is left as a wilderness. The calf (Taurus) shall now 
nourish (v. 10). No favor will be shown to the palst winter, 
for in that day (the equinoctial of spring) the Lord (Jahveh) 
shall beat off Egypt (winter), and Israel shall be gathered one 
by one, i. e., month by month (v. 12). Then, "in that day" 
the great trumpet (of Gabriel, and the Eam's horns of Jericho) 
shall be blown, announcing spring, when the outcasts of Egypt 
(winter) shall worship the Lord (Jahveh) in the holy mount of 
Jerusalem; i. e., the winter constellations will set and go 
below the western horizon into the lower hemisphere. 

Chap, xxviii. Ephraim signifies fruit and=autumn. Syria 
(spring) " was confederate with Ephraim " (vii, 2), i, e., spring 
produces blossoms, and the fruits of autumn follow. Autumn, 
or, as it was then called, summer, was the crown of pride, 
because of its fruits and the wine then made; hence the 
" drunkards of Ephraim." The crown of pride, or " Ephraim," 
shall be trodden under foot, i. e., summer will pass away, and 
the " glorious beauty " (the many-colored leaves) of the fat 
valley (autumn) shall pass with it, as a fading flower (v. 4). 

The Lord (Jahveh) of hosts shall be a crown of glory to 
him that sitteth in judgment (Sun at summer solstice), and 
strength to them that turn the battle to the gate (fall equinox, 
where they err through wine). And now who shall be taught 
knowledge? Whj r , they, of course, that are " weaned from the 
milk, and drawn from the breasts," i. e., they that have passed 



ISAIAH. 527 

through the summer and arrived at the fall equinox, as Adam 
and Eve. No others; for to obtain knowledge the fatal apple 
must first be eaten. This is the preliminary of all freshmen. 
Thus initiated the learner may pass on over the " broad way " 
that will lead him to knowledge, freedom and the enjoyment 
of life. The little " narrow way," so much harped upon by 
the ignorant, can't furnish the room necessary to success in 
science ; for the trial has been daily made for hundreds, if not 
thousands, of years. "Precept upon precept, and line upon 
line ; here a little and there a little," have been expended upon 
the sucklings, with no other effect than that they might fall 
backward over the fall equinox, and thus be broken and snared 
and taken (v. 13). Men must enter the winter hemisphere if 
they would acquaint themselves with evil. Familiar with evil, 
they would understand the nature of good. Like their great 
grandparents, Adam and Eve, they must make a covenant 
with death and hell (winter), and thus cover themselves with 
falsehood and lies (v. 15). It was through these means that 
the Lord (Adoni) laid his corner stone in Zion (winter solstice, 
where the days begin to lengthen), hence a sure foundation, 
whence there is a certain prospect of getting up out of hell. 
And what is quite curious in this connection is, that " he that 
believeth shall not make haste," i. e., being assured of his 
safety he will take things coolly (v. 16) ! 

After winter comes spring, with its path of righteousness= 
the equinox, whence hail (the seventh plague of Egypt) will 
sweep away the refuge of lies (winter), and the covenant with 
death and hell will be disannulled, and the overflowing scourge 
(winter) shall pass, and ye shall be for "a treading-down to it" 
(marginal reading), i. e., "ye shall be made to fit it"' Yes, 
though your bed be of iron (winter) like that of Procrustes, 
and too short, ye shall be brought to fit it, i. e., if your winter 
store be scanty, eat less — stretch it out ; if too long, lop off a 
part, i. e., sell it. 

The Lord (Jahveh) will rise up from Mount Perazim 
(mount of breaches^ winter solstice) to do his strange {side or 
winter) work. Therefore, don't mock (waste), lest your bands 
(necessities) be made strong (great) ; for the Lord (Adoni= 



528 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

winter) has determined a consumption which will use up your 
supplies. The balance of this chapter, from v. 22, relates to 
seed-time and harvest. 

Chap. xxix. Here the city of David, Jerusalem, or i lie 
summer solstice, is the starting point. It is called Ariel {Lion- 
ram) because Aries passes his zenith as the Sun enters Leo. 
Come what may, the Lord will distress Ariel with " heaviness 
and sorrow,' 1 and himself also (v. 2). He will camp round 
about and against him with a mount (Zion), i. e., the Sun will 
pass from constellation to constellation in the zodiac until it 
reaches the winter solstice six months later, when poor Ariel 
will be brought low, — to his meridian (v. 4), thus placing 
" Jerusalem in bondage with her children" (Gal. iv, 25). 
Nevertheless, "the multitude of terrible ones" (winter con- 
stellations) shall pass away, and Ariel will again " be visited 
of the Lord of Hosts with thunder," etc., i. e., summer will 
succeed winter (v. 6). " The multitude of all the nations " 
(winter) which fights against Ariel (summer) upon Mount Zion 
(winter) shall pass away, — shall be as a dream (vv. 7, 8). 

But stop now, see : They are drunken, and stagger, not 
with wine or strong drink, but with the cold weather ; for the 
Lord ( Jahveh) has brought the " deep sleep " of Adam upon 
them, and all has become as a sealed book, wmich none of them 
can read ! Wherefore, the winter Lord (Adoni), seeing that 
these people honor him with their lips, while their heart is far 
away, will do a marvelous work — will cause their wisdom to 
perish and their understanding to be hid ! Hence their counsel 
will be hid from the Lord (Jahveh), and " woe unto them " 
(v. 15), because of the cold weather. 

" Your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as 
potter's clay," you having nothing to say in the matter. In a 
little while Lebanon (winter) will be turned into a fruitful field 
(summer). Then shall the deaf hear and the blind see again, 
(winter being both deaf and blind). The meek, also, shall re- 
joice in the Lord (Jahveh = summer) ; for the terrible one (win- 
ter) will be brought to nought — will have passed away. 

Then, ah then, Jacob, the smooth and wily Jacob (spring) 
" shall not be ashamed, neither shall his face wax pale," except 



ISAIAH. 529 

perchance when he shall find himself near his poor brother 
Esau, whom he lied out of the Messing, having shortly before 
cheated him of his birthright (Gen. xxvii, 24); or his father- 
in-law Laban, whom he robbed of his possessions, even to his 
Teraphim (Gen. xxxi). Meeting either of these, he might fear, 
and with good reason (Gen. xxxi, 7). 

Nevertheless his children (the spring months), the work of 
my (the Sun's) hands, shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the 
holy (sunny months) of Jacob, and fear the Gods of Israel 
(summer). They that erred in spirit, but not intentionally, 
were restored to understanding on the coming of spring (v. 24), 
i. e., the summer constellations, which during the winter went 
into the upper hemisphere, and so changed the temperature of 
the air — " erred in spirit " — were restored in spring, and stood 
under the horizon at sunrise. 

Chap. xxx. Woe to the rebellious children, who take 
counsel, but not of me. They walk straight down into Egypt, 
hell or winter, where they counsel with Pharaoh, my greatest 
enemy. They trust in the shadow of Egypt, to my great neg- 
lect (v. 2). Therefore, the strength of Pharaoh (the cold 
weather), and the shadow (the dark days) of Egypt, shall shame 
and confuse them (v. 3). Pharaoh's princes were in Zoan (win- 
ter solstice) and his ambassadors died in Hades, hell or winter. 
These children, who had left the Lord, now hold in bad odor 
a people (winter) that cannot help them. They are in a land 
of trouble and anguish, whence come the young and old lion 
(summer), with the fiery flying serpent (summer half of the 
Sun's ecliptic), which will carry their riches (the harvest) upon 
asses, (two stars of Cancer) to a people that will not profit 
them (winter, v. 6). Egypt helps to no purpose ; its strength 
is to sit still (the sabbath of five months). Egypt's people are 
rebellious, and obey not the law of the Lord (summer). They 
say to the seers and prophets : " Turn aside out of the path 
that the Holy. One (Aries) of Israel (summer) may cease from 
before us," i. e., let Aries go below the equator that winter may 
come on (v. 11). So winter came, but they could only be 
saved by "returning and rest" (v. 15). But no; the months 
must flee upon horses. " One thousand (one month) shall flee 
34 



530 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

at the rebuke of one (the opposite month) ; at the rebuke of 
five shall ye (the five winter months) flee, till ye be left as a 
beacon on the top of a mountain " (spring equinox), where the 
Lord (Jahveh) waits for them (v. 18), that he may be very 
gracious, and produce for them a good crop. The Lord (Jah- 
veh) will be Gods (Eloki) of judgment, i. e., he will give to 
each according to his labor. Though the adverse Lord (Adoni) 
now feeds you with the "bread of adversity and the water of 
affliction " (winter fare), you will again see your teachers (the 
summer months). You will hear a word behind you, saying: 
" This (the zodiac) is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to 
the right hand, and when ye turn to the left," i. e., walk above 
the equator, and below it — make the circuit of the year 
(v. 21). And now, as it is the time of the year when Rachel 
had " the custom of women " upon her, " the covering of thy 
graven images of silver " (winter months) will become defiled, 
when you shall cast them away as a " menstruous cloth," say- 
ing — " Get thee hence." 

The filth of spring being thus disposed of, the Lord (Jahveh) 
will rain upon thy seed (latter rain), and the cattle shall feed 
during summer in large pastures; the mountains and hills 
shall be covered with water (the former rain) in the day of 
"the great slaughter" (the Flood), when the towers fall* (at 
the end of summer). The light of the summer (hemmah= 
heat, not Sun as translated) shall be sevenfold, as is the light 
of seven da} 7 s (months), when the Lord (Jahveh) binds up the 
breach of his people, i. e., as when he ends the summer of seven 
months (v. 26). Thus this sevenfold light of the Sun was but 
his ordinary light during the seven summer months. The 
light of the Moon, of course, corresponded to her usual light. 
The name of the Lord extends far, i. e., summer embraces the 
first seven months, from March to September inclusive. His 
burden, the crops, is heavy. His lips (March and September) 
are full of foam=frost, and his tongue (" licker") is as a devour- 
ing fire=the mid-summer heat (v. 27). His breath (the atmo- 
sphere), as an overflowing stream (the rainy season), shall extend 
to the midst of the neck (of Taurus). During this time the 

* The towers of the furnaces = summer months. 



ISAIAH. 531 

people will be put through a sieve of vanity (the -winter), 
through which they are led by a bridle in their jaws (v. 28). 
Now look at the zodiac, and see if, when the Sun is in Scorpio, 
the year will not be halved when he reaches the same point in 
Taurus. The allusion is to the flood of Noah, who went into 
the ark (arc) of winter on the 17th day of the second month 
(counting from the fall equinox) October (precisely the time 
when Osiris entered his), and left it on the 27th day of the 
second month (counting from the spring equinox), each six 
months being a year, as is evident from the context. If other- 
wise, as some may contend, it may be noted that the Jews 
began their ecclesiastical year at the spring equinox, and their 
civil year at the autumnal equinox. 

" A song" is now heard during " a holy solemnity." This 
was the sanctifying of the first-born (Ex. xiii), on the mount of 
the Lord (Jahveh), or at the spring equinox. The people then 
pass on to the " rock, " (summer solstice), where the Lord lets 
down his arm, etc., i. e., puts off part of his attributes (the 
harvest being over), and where the Assyrian (Moses?), "which 
smote with a rod," is beaten down ; and the staff is grounded 
(Moses was told to ground his rod, Ex. iv, 3), i. e., the Sun 
dies, and the year ends. The Sun, however, is immediately 
reborn, as denoted by the joyous music, and is soon ready to 
fight the next year's battles (v. 32). 

Tophet, an onomatopoetic name, suggested by the act of 
spitting, is winter, the spit-upon place. It was made of old 
for the king (Sun), and is deep and broad. Whatever Tophet 
was, it took an all-fired big pile of wood, which could only be 
kept blazing by "the breath of the Lord" (the oxygen of the 
air) which kindled it as readily as brimstone, to warm it. 
Though coal was as plenty then as now, the people were not 
acquainted with its use. 

Chap. xxxi. The preceding chapter left us in Tophet. 
This begins where that left off — in Egypt. They that go 
down into Egypt for help (a crop) will be disappointed, though 
they have horses and (iron) chariots and strong horsemen. 
For help, they must seek the Lord (summer). Yet the Lord 
wisely brings evil (winter), and though he will not recall his 



532 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

word (the Sun never turns back), he will arise against the 
house of evil, and will not help the workers of iniquity (v. 2). 

When the Lord (Jahveh) stretches out his hand, i. e., when 
spring begins, the Egyptians (winter days) will all fall down to- 
gether, i. e., winter will end. The Lord of hosts (seven summer 
months) will next come down as a roaring lion (" western 
Sun " — see Gvhernatii Zool. Myth., vol. ii, p. 157) to light 
for mount Zion (v. 4). As flying birds,* " the ministers of 
Zeus," the Lord of hosts will mount up and deliver Jerusalem 
— passing over it, he will preserve it. 

Therefore turn ye unto him from w T hom Israel has deeply 
revolted. For, at the spring equinox, every man casts aw T ay 
his idols, the winter months, which, being unproductive, im- 
perfectly resemble the summer months, — hence idols (v. 7). 
Then, too, shall the Assyrian fall, but not by the sword of a 
mighty man (summer), nor shall the sword of a mean man 
(winter) devour him. But he shall flee, i. e., he shall go up 
step by step, as his name indicates, without interruption, from 
the winter to the summer solstice, where his young -men (the 
increments of the lengthening days) will be discomfited, and 
the days begin to shorten. From this point the Assyrian will 
pass down, as he came up, step by step, until he reaches his 
rock (winter solstice), where the days begin to lengthen, and 
w T here the Lord's (Sun's) fire originates, or is born (in Zion), his 
furnace (hot weather) being in Jerusalem (the latter half of 
summer). 

Chap, xxxii. Ah, here we are in Christ's kingdom ; also 
Hezekiah's (summer), where the king (the Sun) and his princes 
rule in judgment — give a reward for labor bestowed. Here a 
man shall escape the tempests, the rains and the dark days of a 
weary land (winter). In the bright summer, too, men see 
more clearly, while the hearing is more acute (v. 3).f The heart 
of the apt (not " rash," as in the English text, but apt) shall 
understand knowledge — shall comprehend the phenomena of 

* The birds here referred to are the Eagle, the Swan, and the Vulture, or the Lyre, 
three northern constellations, which come to their zenith about the spring equinox. They 
were called obscene, or stymphalid (phallus-erecting) birds, because they made their appear- 
ance as above, which was the love season of the year. 

t "Temperature affects the velocity of sound; the latter is increased about one foot 
(0.96 ft.) for each degree of rise in the temperature" {Olmsted's Nat. Phil., 2d ed., p. 191). 



ISAIAH. 533 

the seasons, while the tongue of the stammerer (stiff from the 
cold of the past winter) shall now speak plainly (v. 4). The 
vile and churlish hypocrite (winter) deviseth wicked devices to 
destroy the poor with lies, even when the needy speaks right 
(vv. 6, 7), but the liberal (summer) deviseth liberal things (a 
good crop) and stands by them (v. 8). So far, summer ; the 
scene now changes. Yirgo (the woman at ease=Sun in Virgo = 
ingathering), leaving the Sun, now rises into the upper hemi- 
sphere, when the vintage fails, and there will be no ingather- 
ing. Therefore tremble ye careless women, strip yourself bare 
(harvests are gathered), and put on sackcloth (winter apparel) ; 
for " the people will lament the loss of your teats (shaddaim 
= breasts), the pleasant fields, and the fruitful vine " (v. 12). 

Instead of these, "briars and thorns" shall come upon my 
people ; and they will remain until the spirit (the Sun's heat) 
shall be again poured down upon us from on high (i. e., until 
the following summer), and so turn the wilderness into a fruit- 
ful field (v. 15). Then will my people dwell in a peaceable 
habitation (summer). Ah ! blessed are ye that sow beside all 
waters (the former rain), and send thither the ox (Taurus set- 
ting) and the ass to tread in the grain (v. 20). Seed time past, 
the earth shall be laid low in a low place (southern hemi- 
sphere). 

Chap, xxxiii. Winter spoils, but is not spoiled ; ceasing 
to spoil (ending), it is spoiled, i. e., the provisions left are 
carried into the next season (v. 1). 

It is spring, hence, O Lord (Jahveh), be gracious and give 
us a good crop, for this alone is our salvation in time of 
trouble — in winter (v. 2). "At the noise of the tumult (the 
confusion of Babel) the people fled ; " at the lifting up of thy- 
self (the Sun going into the upper hemisphere) the nations 
were scattered — got out of the ark (v. 3). Your spoil 
(Joseph's bones=the remains of the winter stores) shall be 
gathered into a small space (v. 4). 

Behold, the Lord (Sun) is exalted (in Aries), he dwelleth 
on high (in the summer hemisphere) ; he hath filled (in time 
past) Zion (winter) with judgment and righteousness. Wisdom 
and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times (the spring) 



534 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

and thy salvation. The fear of the Lord (Jahveh) is his 
(Judah's) treasure, i. e., the position of the Earth as regards 
the Sim brings the crops (v. 6). But again "behold" their 
valiant ones (erellem *=the lion or summer rams= Aries during 
the summer months) shall cry without (i. e., during winter); 
the ambassadors of peace (the summer months just ended) 
shall weep bitterly, — the rainy season will next come on (v. 7). 

The highways now lie waste (Earth in winter), the way- 
faring man (the Sun) ceaseth (his labor) ; for he hath broken 
the covenant (gone below the equator), he hath despised the 
cities (summer months), he regardeth no man (v. 8). The 
Earth mourneth and languisheth, and Lebanon is ashamed ; 
Sharon (plain) is like a wilderness (winter), and Bashan and 
Carmel (spring and summer) shake off their fruits, i. e., are 
past (v. 9). 

Now will I (the Sun) rise, saith the Lord; now will I be 
exalted (Sun in Aries) ; now will I lift myself up. Ye (Leb- 
anon and Sharon) may conceive chaff and bring forth straw ; 
for thus was your curse (Gen. iii, 17, 18). You are ever 
devoured by your own breath, — winter consumes the summer 
crops. The sinners and hypocrites of Zion (winter) are afraid, 
because they dwell with the devouring fire (v. 14). But he 
that walketh uprightly shall dwell on high, in summer, and 
bread (harvest) shall be given him (v. 16). Thine (Christ's or 
the Messiah's) eyes shall see the king (the Sun) in his beauty 
in summer, and the land that is far off (v. 17). Thy heart shall 
meditate terror (winter). Where is the scribe ? — the end of 
the year. Where is the " weigher? " = Libra, As the Sun 
enters Aries, Earth enters Libra, and spring begins. Here 
thou shalt not see a fierce people, etc. (v. 19). After summer 
look upon Zion (winter solstice), the city of our solemnities, 
wherein we celebrate Christmas, or Christ's birth.f Again 
thou shalt see Jerusalem (peaces summer) a quiet habitation, 
a tabernacle that shall not be taken down (v. 20). But this 

* "The word erellam, which we translate valiant ones, is very difficult; no man knows 
what it means,"— Clarke, in loco. Some MSS. read erellim. The true reading, doubtless, 
is arielim= Lion-rams. In this I am supported by Fuerst, Heb. Lex., p. 148. None are so 
blind as they who won't see! 

+ Or the sending forth of Christ, or the Sun. 



ISAIAH. 535 

Jerusalem, this summer, will be a place of broad rivers, where 
no ship shall float. Noah's scow can never navigate here. It 
belongs to the winter hemisphere. 

The Lord (summer Sun) is our judge, law-giver and king. 
Thy tacklings are loosed, winter is past and its spoil (what is 
left of its store) is divided among the lame (the people being 
usually crippled, i. e., short of provisions just before harvest). 
At the spring equinox, the days and nights being equal, the 
sins or iniquities of the people are forgiven. 

Chap, xxxiv. The nations — even "all things that come 
forth of the world " (the year) are called together (at the fall 
equinox), and told that the indignation of the Lord (winter) is 
upon them : " He hath utterly destroyed them (summer being 
wholly past) and delivered them to the slayer " * (winter) ; 
that thenceforth their carcasses shall stink ; and the mountains 
shall be melted with their blood ; that the heavens (summer) 
shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host (the 
summer constellations) shall fall down (set), as (when) the leaf 
falleth from the vine, and the fig from its tree, in autumn. 
This language of blood and carrion is extravagant and fright- 
ful, and well calculated, as doubtless intended, to horrify and 
appall the ignorant and weak-minded. But, let us not be 
frightened when a madman stares. The figure is continued : 

The Lord's sword, " bathed in heaven " (the Sun at the end 
of summer), and "filled with blood" (the red and least refran- 
gible rays of the Sun, which, from the Sun's position as regards 
the Earth, prevail to their greatest extent in winter), and made 
fat with the kidneys of rams (the crops at the end of summer 
when Aries sets), shall come down upon Idumea (Edom, or 
winter, from the " red-brown " pottage of Esau) to sacrifice in 
Bozrah of Edom (pen of Edom, or winter ; perhaps October), 
and make a great slaughter in the land (winter). 

The wild oxen (" unicorns ") and bulls (Taurus setting as 
the Sun rises in Scorpio) shall come down with them (the 
neighboring stars), and their land (winter) shall be drunken 
with blood (explained above). " It is the day of the Lord's 
vengeance," i. e., the equinoctial day, when the Lord will 

* Satan (Job i, 12). 



536 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

retaliate, or pay off summer for opposing Zion, or winter (v. 8), 
Fires must now be made to keep the people warm, and " the 
land shall lie waste from generation to generation." The word 
here translated generation, means a circle, or a period of time, 
as a day, a week, or a month ; and the meaning is that the 
land shall lie waste from month to month until spring. Until 
then none shall pass through it, none shall cultivate it for its 
brightness (netsah), i. e., none will mistake winter for summer. 
Netsah netsahim seems to be the intensitive of brightness. 
However, its sense certainly stands opposed to that of olam y 
usually translated for ever; this last, in my view, referring to 
winter, or darkness, while the first refers to summer, or bright- 
ness. How two words of wholly different orthography, and 
having opposite meanings, may be honestly translated to mean 
the same thing, I leave for theologians to make out. 

Non-migratory birds, as the owl, the raven, etc., of course 
will u dwell in it," i. e., remain with us during winter. The 
Lord will stretch upon winter, the line of confusion (winter 
arc of the circle) and the stones (see Josh, iv, 9) of emptiness 
(winter). The nobles (summer months) will not be there, but 
will be as nothing (time past). Thorns and brambles (the dead 
herbage of winter) shall occupy the place of summer, also 
dragons and owls (v. 13). The wild beasts of the desert and 
the island, with the satyr (goat = Capricorn) and the screech- 
owl shall find rest there (v. 14). 

Therefore, in view of all these inconveniences, it will be 
best to seek the book of the Lord (summer) ; for therein will 
it be found that all times and seasons may be predicted of the 
future, and that whatever is so predicted will surely come to 
pass, for there is no point in the circle which has not its oppo- 
site (v. 16). "The Lord has cast the lot for them, and his 
hand hath divided it unto them by line ; they shall possess it 
for ever," i. e., until winter (olam=hidmg, or darkness) sets in ; 
and from generation to generation, or from year to year. 

Chap. xxxv. Ah ! here we are again- in Christ's kingdom 
(spring), and, sure enough, the desert and solitary places 
(Earth in winter) now rejoice, and blossom as the rose. Yea, 
it shall blossom abundantly amid the joy and singing of birds, 



ISAIAH. 587 

now just returned among us. The glory of Lebanon (melted 
snow) shall be given to it (the bare Earth), with the excellency 
of Carmel (the garden of Eden) and Sharon (spring, when the 
rose blooms). Then shall they see the glory of the Lord, and 
the excellency of our Gods (Sun-Rams, or Aries during sum- 
mer), i. e., they will see the fruits of the season, if they will but 
cultivate the soil. Therefore, strengthen the weak hands, etc., 
i. e., cultivate the tender plants, and say to them, Be strong — 
grow ; for behold, your Gods will come with vengeance (warm 
weather) ; even the Gods (Elohim) of recompense, and, doing 
your part, will save you (v. 4). For remarks on v. 5, see chap, 
xxxii. The lame, or the crippled, or those short of provisions, 
will now leap for joy. Waters (the latter rain) shall break out, 
and the " parched ground " shall become a pool — shall be sat- 
urated with water. 

What was, during winter, a habitation for dragons, will 
now be covered with grass, reeds and rushes (v. 7). The high- 
way, which shall be called the way of holiness (summer), shall 
not be for the unclean (winter), but for the wayfaring man, 
who, though a fool, shall not err therein ; for the most con- 
founded fool could scarcely mistake summer for winter. 

No lion (ariah=$mi in Leo) shall be there (the time being 
before the Sun reaches Leo) ; nor any ravenous beast ; only 
the redeemed (such of the constellations as have reached the 
upper hemisphere) shall walk there. But the ransomed of the 
Lord (such as have passed their zenith), shall return, and come 
down to Zion (the fall equinox) with songs of joy upon their 
heads, because of the bounteous crops just ingathered. 

Chap. xl. The chapters here passed have been noticed 
heretofore. The scene of the prophecy in this chapter xl, we 
are told by the commentators, was laid in Babylon near the 
close of the captivity, i. e., about the end of winter. Their 
conjecture is about right. Hence, their Gods tell the people to 
comfort themselves ; for the captivity of Babylon, or winter, 
is near its end, and warm weather is at hand. Next: Speak 
to the heart, or rather upon the heart, of Jerusalem (mid- 
summer) ; tell her her warfare is ended, and her iniquity 
pardoned (the year here supposed to have commenced at the 



538 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

summer solstice, is ended) ; for she has received of the Lord 
double for all her sins. Between the two solstices we have 
the two declinations of the Sun, the north and the south ; both 
these the Sun recovers at the summer solstice. 

John the Baptist, or John the Bather, so called from 
the necessity of bathing in hot weather, the genius of the sum- 
mer solstice, now puts in his appearance. Every valley, says 
he, himself bringing up the valley of Hinnom, which he 
shouldered six months before, shall be exalted, and every hill 
be made low ; i. e., all the stars of the zodiacal constellations 
shall ascend to their zenith, and then descend to their nadir, as 
Jacob dreamed he saw them do (Gen. xxviii, 12*). The 
Yoice, i. e., John, said : Cry. "And he" — who? John? God? 
Lord? or Devil? But never mind. "He said, What shall I 
cry?" as if in doubt what to say: and certainly, being, as 
he w T as, upon the pinnacle of the temple, there was reason for 
doubting, as he did not exactly know w T hich way he might fall. 
However, as his mind must be made up quickly, he came to 
the conclusion, from his position, that there must be some 
analogy among all living beings ; so he cried : " All flesh is as 
grass," i. e., as the grass grows, comes to maturity, and then 
declines, or withers, simply because "the spirit of the Lord (the 
summer air) bloweth upon it," so it must be of the animal king- 
dom. Here, then, we have that " ensemble of vital phenomena 
presented by the organic world as of a whole," which was 
accepted of the ancient as of modern philosophers (Spencer, 
Biol., vol. i, p. 321). 

In the ninth verse of this chapter we have Zion and Jeru- 
salem (the winter and summer solstices) ; both as bringers of 
good tidings (good crops and general health). The first 
(Adoni) gets into a high mountain (western horizon) ; the sec- 
ond lifts up its voice without fear (being in conjunction with 
the Sun, it is without fear) ; both say unto the cities of Judah 
(spring): "BEHOLD YOUE GOD." 

JMow, look at the cut (fig. 8) on the next page. The sun 
being in the summer solstice, rises with Cancer. Capricorn 
being opposite Cancer, is in the western horizon with the 

* Verse 5 of this chapter is an interpolation (see Clarke, in loco). 



ISAIAH. 



539 




Earth. The two solstices 
therefore seem to coincide 
with the two equinoxes, the 
summer solstice being in 
the East ; the opposite sol- 
stice in the West. Thus 
situated both are directed 
to say to the cities (constel- 
lations) of Judah : " Behold your God," i. e., Aries in his 
zenith. The four months of spring being just passed, the 
constellations corresponding to Judah are Aries, Taurus, 
Gemini and Cancer ; the first of the four being at that moment 
in his zenith, or in mid-heaven ! Oh, how beautiful ! 

" Yes ! behold ! for the Lord-God (Adoni-Jakveh=the union 
of the two solstices with Aries in his zenith) has come ; his re- 
ward (the crops) is with him, and his work is before him." Yes, 
sir, that's so ; and with these crops he will feed his flock (the 
whole animal kingdom) as a 
shepherd feeds his sheep ; he 
will gather his lambs (the 
stars of Aries) under his arm, 
and carry them with the up- 
right or solstitial cross, de- 
noting mid-summer, in his 
bosom, as seen in the picture 
before us (Didron's Ico?wg., 
p. 322). 

At this time, too (summer 
solstice), the Lord measures 
the waters in the hollow of his 
hand, metes out the heavens 
with a span (the semi-circle 
overhead), and weighs the 
mountains in a balance (Libra, 
be it noted, is now on its 
meridian, and exactly under 
the Earth at sunrise). Now, 
who hath directed or instructed 




540 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the Lord in all these things? The nations are as a drop of 
water in the bucket, and as dust in his balance, i. e., the Earth 
is compared to the whole. He takes up the isles (the dry land) 
as a small thing. Lebanon (winter) he cannot burn (shine 
directly upon), nor use his beasts for burnt offerings. The 
summer Sun has nothing to do with winter. Thus much of 
the Lord (Jahveh), or Elohi (Ram-Suns of summer). This 
subject is dismissed at verse 17. 

" To whom, then, will ye liken God" (El= Aries in win- 
ter)?— the impoverished, barren and destructive God (El); 
the God (El) that afflicted Job didn't know how to deal justly 
with (Job ix, 2) ; the God (El) that Job says he should have 
denied (xxxi, 28); the God (El) he could not endure, because 
of his highness (Aries on his meridian = mid-winter), — Job xxxi, 
23 ; the God (El) that sitteth upon the circle of the earth 
(winter) ; not the Gods (Elohi) that mount into the heavens 
(summer), but the God (El) who brings heaven's princes (the 
summer constellations) to nothing, and makes earth's judges 
as vanity ; the God (El), w T ho, if seed be sown, permits it not 
to take root in the earth, but blows with his cold winds and 
vetoes all vegetable growth. True, " the workman melteth a 
graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, 
and casteth silver chains," i. e., the Sun, in winter, shows his 
yellow face as he passes from sign to sign, and that is all. 

" To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal ? 
saith the Holy," the " One " being an interpolation (v. 25). 
The w r ord (kadesli) translated " Holy," means something new, 
fresh, clean, pure, etc., and has reference to El, or Aries at the 
beginning of the year, and before he reaches the spring equi- 
nox, or comes opposite to, and in connection with, Virgo. 
" Lift up your eyes on high (to the spring equinox), and behold 
(the Elohim) who hath created all these (six summer constella- 
tions), who bringeth them all out from the spring equinox (for 
then they are all below the equator), numbering and calling 
them by their names. Not one will fail to come at the proper 
time. 

" Why, then tell me, O Jacob (spring), and O Israel (sum- 
mer) that my way (winter) is hid from the Lord (Jahveh = the 



ISAIAH. 541 

upper hemisphere), and my judgment is passed from my God " 
(Elohi=Sun in Aries). I tell you it is not so ; not having yet 
reached him (the Sun at the spring equinox), how can it be 
possible that I have passed him ? Note, below the equator and 
disjoined from the Sun, the Hebrew of Aries is El. Above 
the equator, and with the Sun, the two are in Hebrew Elohi 
or Elohim. 

Dost thou not know (El is yet speaking), hast thou not 
heard, that the hiding * Gods (Elohi), the Lord ( Jahveh), the 
creator of the ends of the earth (the summer of which the 
East and the West are the ends) fainteth not, nor is weary? 
There is no searching of his understanding (?). He gives 
power to summer, which without him was faint and without 
strength. In his absence there is failure (v. 30). But they 
(the summer constellations) that wait upon the Lord (Jahveh) 
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles (the constellation called the Eagle in its rising precedes 
that of Aries, and coming to its zenith brings spring). 

Chap. xli. Here the author starts with winter — " silence, 
keep silence before me " (Jahveh, or summer). Winter was 
before summer — chaos before creation. Then all were of one 
speech — silent. But now "let the people renew their 
strength," i. e., let spring come, when they will recover their 
speech (v. 1). Spring comes, — and " who raised up the righteous 
from the east, where the Sun rises? 'Twas I, the Lord (Jah- 
veh), the first and the last that did it, none else could do it. 
I pursued them (the winter months), and passed safely. The 
isles (winter) and the ends of the earth (the east and the west) 
saw and feared (v. 5). However, they helped one another to 
forge the silver chains (xli, 13). The carpenter (the dumb, or 
silent one= winter) encouraged the goldsmith (the Sun), and 
the work went bravely on. Soldering time (the spring equi- 
nox) came, and he (the carpenter) nailed it (v. 7). 

Jacob (spring) is now the Lord's friend, while Israel (sum- 

* The Hebrew olam, here and elsewhere translated " everlasting," literally means hid- 
ing., and this is its common meaning in the Bible. Hesed Jahveh me olam, vead olam — 
The mercy of the Lord (summer) is from the hiding to the hiding, i. e., is from the end 
of one winter to the beginning of the next. The word netsah (brightness, the opposite of 
olam, or darkness) is also translated (xxxiv, 10) "for ever and ever," i. e., the land shall 
lay waste until brightness, or summer. 



542 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

mer) following after, becomes his servant (v. 8). But though 
now a servant, Israel is not cast off, i. e., summer is not past 
(v. 9). Israel will catch up, as at v. 10 : " Fear not, for I am 
with thee ; " I will strengthen and uphold thee — Sun passing the 
four summer constellations. All they (the winter constellations) 
that were against thee, shall be as nothing (winter is past). 
Seeking, thou shalt not find them (v. 12). But fear not, thou 
worm (swallower) of Jacob, i. e., fear not, Israel, for I will be 
at thy right hand, and will help thee, saith the Holy one of 
Israel (v. 14) — summer follows spring. After harvest, thresh- 
ing time comes; hence "I will make thee (Israeli summer) a 
' threshing instrument ' (the season of threshing), and thou 
shalt thresh the mountains (the heaps of grain), and beat them 
small like chaff (v. 15). Then shalt thou fan the heaps, when 
the wind will scatter the chaff, and thou shalt rejoice in the 
clean grain, giving the Lord, or summer, due praise for the part 
he performed for you (v. 16). 

At the end of summer, i. e., in October, the rainy season 
will begin, and the people, who before were short of water, 
will be supplied beyond their needs, for the wilderness (Earth 
in winter) will become a pool of water (v. 18). Winter suc- 
ceeds, as denoted by its symbolic trees — the shittah, the cedar, 
fir, pi7ie, myrtle, etc. (v. 19). The Lord and the Holy One of 
Israel created winter, i. e., winter followed summer, and 
showed the former things, and the things to come hereafter. 
Let winter do both good and evil, that we may know .its 
months are Gods ; but behold, it is naught, and its work 
naught ; it is an abomination (v. 24). 

I (the Lord) have raised up one from the north, and he 
shall come and call upon my name at the rising of the Sun 
(spring equinox) — Yes, he shall come upon the princes 
(spring months) as upon mortar (the mud of spring). He hath 
declared from the " beginning," that we may say he is righteous, 
i. e., that summer has come (v. 26). Zion (winter solstice) will 
behold this righteousness (summer solstice), when the Lord 
brings glad tidings to Jerusalem — the harvest (v. 27). Look- 
ing back, the past is vanity — emptiness, and "the molten 
images" (winter months just past) are wind and confusion. 



ISAIAH. 548 

Chap. xlii. Behold the Lord's servant, the Messiah of the 
Jews, the Christ of Christians, the Sun of All. He comes to 
the spring equinox, where the Lord puts his spirit (heat) in 
theJSun; which, by his aid, will bring forth judgment (food) 
to the nations (v. 1). He will not cry ; nor will his voice be 
heard in the street. Without quenching the smoking fiax, or 
breaking a bruised reed (the winter just passed), he will set 
judgment in the earth (will produce a crop). The isles will 
wait for him : — winter will follow summer and devour its crops 
(v. 4). Thus saith the God (El = Aries in winter); the Lord 
(Jahveh) is creating the heavens, etc. (y. 5). This is the correct 
translation, the common version, being ignorantly corrupt ; or, 
corrupt, through ignorance and rascality combined. My reasons 
here follow : 1. In the Hebrew of this verse, the word El, 
translated " God," has the article " the " prefixed to it, conse- 
quently " the God " is the correct translation. Then follows 
a pause, indicating that El and Jahveh are two distinct per- 
sonifications. 2. All the Hebrew words, translated as active 
verbs of the past tense, are active participles, and should be so 
translated, the time being present, as denoted in the next verse : 
I, the Lord (Jahveh = summer) have called thee, and will hold 
thee, etc., i. e., I, the Sun, have met thee at the spring equinox ; 
will keep and give thee (the Earth) for a covenant of the people, 
and a light to the nations (the last clause being a mere pleon- 
asm, wherein " nations " is a synonym of the word people). I, 
the Sun, will open the blind eyes ; bring the prisoners out of 
winter. I will not give my glory to another — to winter ; nor 
will I shine upon " graven images " (the winter months). For- 
mer things (winter) are past ; I declare new things (summer), 
and tell you before they come (v. 9). Therefore "sing unto 
the Lord (summer) a new song " — sing his praise from the end 
of the earth (winter), yea, let the isles (winter) and the inhab- 
itants thereof, let them that go down to the sea (winter), the 
villagers of Kedar (the cold one= winter), and the inhabitants 
of the rock (winter solstice) shout from the top of the moun- 
tains. 

For the Lord (Jahveh) will go forth as a mighty man, and 
prevail over his enemy = winter (v. 13). Yerse 14 is so badly 



544 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

rendered that it scarcely affords a glimpse of the original mean- 
ing ; " I was caused to hold my peace from the hiding —meolarn 
(usually translated "for ever" but here, "long time"), i.e., 
from the beginning of and during the winter just ended, I 
kept silence (winter) ; I restrained myself. As a travailing 
woman, I will now cry, shine brightly, and destroy all at 
once. Spring, or summer, having just returned, cries, as in 
the confusion of Babel, shines brightly, and so destroys winter; 
and this, too, all at once. The producing season is likened to 
a travailing woman. After spring comes summer, the dry sea- 
son, when he will destroy, i. e., the hot weather " will dry up 
all their herbs," and " the pools " (v. 15). Still, he will lead 
the blind from darkness into light and not forsake them (v. 16). 
But they that trust in " graven images," saying, " ye are our 
gods," shall be turned back into the winter hemisphere, where 
they will be ashamed (barren). 

Therefore, " hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may 
see ! " But the deaf and blind don't see. Hence the poor 
blind and deaf servant (sun in winter) leads the blind and deaf 
where they are snared in holes (the winter months), and hid in 
prison houses (winter). Listen, now : Who gave Jacob (the 
crops of spring) for a spoil, and Israel (summer) to the robbers 
(winter months)? Was it the Lord? Certainly it was. Why 
did he act thus? Because the people could not always walk in 
his ways, but must, at the proper time, depart from summer 
into winter. Hence has he cast his fury upon him (the Earth), 
and though fired and burned, " he laid it not to heart." 

Chap, xliii. In verse 1 of this chapter, we have Jacob and 
Israel (spring and summer) as one, who having passed the rainy 
season of winter are redeemed of the Lord (summer), Jacob, of 
course, first, and Israel afterward. The Lord (summer) gave 
Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba (winter) for them. Thus are both 
precious in the Lord's sight, i. e., they are rich in crops, and, of 
course, he loved them (v. 4). When the Lord (Sun) is with 
them they need not fear, for he will bring them from the East 
and gather them in the West, where they are extinguished. 
He will say to the north and to the south, give up, and they 
will bring his sons from far, and his daughters (the days in 



ISAIAH. 545 

Virgo) from the ends of the Earth (the west). Yirgo joins the 
Sun near the end of summer, when apples are ripe. All the 
summer days are his (the Lord's), for he created them (v. T). 
But winter is coming, when they " bring forth the blind and 
the deaf (the dark days of winter), and let the nations be 
gathered together, as they are at the fall equinox, where winter 
meets summer. "Can any show us former things? Ye are 
my witnesses:" "Before me no God (El— Aries in winter) 
was sprouting, blooming or becoming green, neither shall there 
be after me " (v. 10), i. e., winter will always be barren. Thus 
is the ignorance, or dishonesty and deceit of translators and 
commentators ever cropping out. Summer blooms and bears 
fruit," not winter. Know, then, that " I, even I, the summer, 
am the savior, and none else — deny it if you can ! " "I have 
declared and saved and showed, when there was no strange 
god (El ) with you," i. e., while it was summer. But now ye 
are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God (El), i. e., it is 
winter. " Yea, before the day (creation) was, I am he " (El) ; 
I will work, i. e., go ahead, who shall turn me back? None 
(v. 13). 

Thus saith your redeemer : For your sake I have sent to 
Babylon (winter), and have brought down thither all their 
bars (meridians), and the Chaldeans (highlanders, or spring), 
whose cry is now with the ships (Argo navis, the ship of the 
southern hemisphere, — see celestial globe). I, the Lord, your 
king (v. 15), now make a way in the sea and the mighty waters 
(the rainy season of winter) ; I now bring forth the horse and 
his chariot (the Sun in his ecliptic) and make them lie down 
together — bring the year to its end at the winter solstice 
(v. 17). And "I will do a new thing; it shall begin now" 
(v. 19). Dragons and owls are emblems of winter (v. 20). 

The people shall praise the Lord, though Jacob and Israel 
have not called upon him, i. e., even in winter. If they did 
not bring their customary offerings, such as Abel brought, but 
such as those of Cain, it was the Lord's fault, and he, as 
particeps criminis, will not, therefore, remember their sins 
(v. 25). Because Adam sinned the Lord gave Jacob (spring) 
to the curse, and Israel (summer) to reproaches. 
35 



546 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Chap. xliv. In the last verse of the preceding chapter, 
Jacob was " given to the curse," i. e., the four spring constella- 
tions were all passed to the west of the Sun, and thus given 
to the curse. Israel, or the four summer months, " is chosen," 
and so becomes liable to the same fate ; hence given to 
reproaches. Jacob, having furnished the spring crops, need 
not fear. Jeshurun (the upright, or solstitial Sun, or Israel,) 
need not fear, for he is chosen. 

Thus this chapter begins with Sun at the summer solstice. 
The Lord (the summer atmosphere) will pour water upon the 
thirsty and floods upon the dry ground (the rainy season corues- 
on toward the end of summer). The seed (for then is seed- 
time) that is sown will germinate and grow (v. 3) ; it shall 
spring up like willows by the water-courses (v. 4). Verse 5 is 
far from a literal translation, as the italicized words, which are 
foreign to the text, denote. I will venture a better: "This 
shall say to the Lord, I am y and this shall call in the name of 
Jacob ; and this shall write by his hand to the Lord : and in 
the name of Israel shall he cover (or hide) himself." The 
meaning is obvious : The Sun first passes the four winter con- 
stellations, next, the four spring constellations, and lastly, 
covers, or hides, himself in those of Israel, the hiding place 
being as we find it in Scorpio (v. 3). The three seasons pass 
in regular succession. 

We next come (v. 6) to the much-hackneyed and ever 
memorable declaration, " I am the first, and I am the last ; 
and besides me there are no Gods" (Elohim=Ram-Suns). 
Now, look at the transparent dishonesty, or ignorance of 
priests. The language of the original is plain and explicit, 
leaving no room for doubt. The term Elohim = Ram-Suns, 
therein found, tells the story. The Sun being at his winter 
solstice, says: "I am the first, and I am the last; besides me 
(i. e., leaving me out of the question) there are no Elohim" = 
Ram-Suns. Why? Because the Elohim, or summer months, 
were past, and Aries, having set opposite the rising Sun, was 
no longer one of the Elohim, but, dissevered from the Sun, he 
became simply El=& Bam, not Ram-Sun, as we shall soon 
see. But "fear not, neither be afraid;" "ye are my wit- 



isaiah. 547 

nesses." Now, let me ask, "Is there a God (Eloh) besides 
me?" I tell you, " THEEE IS NO GOD (Eloh); I know 
not any" (v. 8). And who knows better than I (El), who 
"appointed the ancient (olam* = hidden, or winter,) people?" 
God (El) says there is no God (Eloh), i. e., that when it is 
winter, it is not summer, f Reader, do you believe him? Of 
course you do. True, they make " graven images," base 
imitations of the summer Sun ; but they are vain and empty, 
unprofitable, as themselves witness, being full of shame, i. e., 
unproductive and barren (v. 9). Then, tell me, " who hath 
formed a God (El= Aries in winter), or molten a graven image 
(of the Sun) that is of any use?" "Profitable for nothing," 
is the vulgar, but stupid translation (v. 10). 

Yerses 11 to 20, inclusive, mark the passage of the Sun 
through the winter months. The smith (Tubal-Cain, or Vul- 
can) works his iron (symbol of winter) among the coals, and 
the carpenter (the San or Hiram) heweth down the cedars 
(emblems of winter) with which the people make fires and 
roast their meat. Thus they live, devouring their ashes even 
(for time spares nothing) until their sins and transgressions are 
blotted out (v. 22), and the Lord again addresses himself to 
Jacob and Israel (v. 21). Then, indeed, spring has come : 
" Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it ! " " The Lord 
lias frustrated the liars (the winter months), made the diviners 
mad, turned their wise men (the winter) backward and made 
their knowledge foolishness" (v. 25). He saith to the deep 
(the rainy season), be dry, and it is dried ; and Jerusalem 
(summer) is again habitable, the cities of Judah (the four spring 
months) taking precedence. He saith this also of Cyrus : 
" Cyrus is an expression for the Sun," — Euerst, Heb. Lex., p. 
702. " The Greek writers affirm that this name, in Persian, 
signifies the Sun," — Ges. Heh. Lex., p. 454. Cyrus is evidently 
but a variation of the Hindu Surya=the Sun. 

Chap. xlv. Summer succeeds spring, and winter, summer ; 
and as (chap, xliii) Jacob (spring) was called, and (chap, xliv) 

* This word olam, like many others, is a very accommodating word. It is twisted and 
tortured into anything to suit the fancy or whim of the translators. Here it is made to 
mean ancient or old. 

+ Punning, or a play upon words, is of frequent occurrence in the Bible. 



548 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Israel (summer) was chosen ; so, in orderly sequence, may we 
look with, certainty in this chapter for a description of winter, 
the third and last season of the ancient year. 

The Lord had gradually strengthened (the cold came on 
by degrees) the right hand of his anointed Cyrus (the Sun in 
winter), that by him he might subdue (literally, tread down) 
the nations before him. He next loosens the loins (see in your 
almanac if Libra don't point to the loins) of kings (the 
zodiacal constellations), in order to open the " tivo-Uaved " 
gates (fall equinox), which shall not be shut during Cyrus' 
reign, i. e., during the coming winter. The Lord (Sun) goes 
before, and breaks down the brazen gates and cuts the bars of 
iron (the baser metals symbolize winter) ; he gives treasures of 
darkness and hidden riches (the winter stores — Pluto, or win- 
ter, was the god of riches), that Cyrus might know that he 
(the Lord) was the God (Elohi— Ram-Sun) of Israel, i. e., 
that he might know that all these riches were the product of 
the summer season. 

In verse 4, the Lord passes from Jacob (spring) to Israel 
(summer) and thence to Cyrus (winter), whom he surnamed 
by his presence as he had Israel before him (xliv, 5), Cyrus 
being unaware of the fact, saying, " I am the Lord, without 
me, there are no Gods " (Elohim=Ram-Suns), i.'e., remove the 
"/Suns" as at the fall equinox, and only "Rani" (El) would 
remain in place of Elohim. Rejoice then, i. e., the Sun and 
Aries, as at the spring equinox, and the Elohim are restored ; 
so that plainly, without the Lord or Sun, there can be no 
Elohim,. Hence the Lord says, "I girded (embraced) thee 
that they (the people) might know from the rising of the Sun 
and from the west," i. e., during the winter, "that there is 
none besides me." Having thus denned his position, the Lord 
(Sun) confidently exclaims: "I am the Lord, and there is 
none else " (v. 6). The Ram (Aries) being on the opposite side 
of the Earth in the night hemisphere, the Elohim were no- 
where ! O ye theologians, ever given to disputations, but 
never to science, who, like the dog in the fable, catch at the 
shadow and lose the substance, when will ye cease to delude 
and cheat an ignorant people? 



ISAIAH. 549 

• 

" I (the Sun) form the light and create darkness ; I make 
peace (summer), and create evil (winter). I, the Lord (Sun) do 
all these things " (v. 7). Having first created peace (summer) 
and lastly evil (winter), the Lord sends down rain, for with win- 
ter the rainy season begins, from the skies that the seed just 
sown may germinate and produce a crop, and through it sal- 
vation (v. 8). Winter having fairly set in, the Lord denounces 
the cold, blustering and rainy days, calling them "potsherds" 
a word, says Gesenius, " put for anything mean and contempt- 
ible," such as winter was ever esteemed by the suffering poor. 
Nevertheless, as winter is - the offspring of summer, the latter 
is not to be blamed (v. 9). Parents cannot help what their 
children may be (v. 10). 

But, dropping the present, "ask me of things to come con- 
cerning my sons (the next summer's days), and the w T ork of my 
hands " (the next year's crops). Yet hold ; I am, perhaps, a 
little fast, as I may not be able to tell exactly what they may 
be. I will say, however, " I have made the Earth, and created 
man upon it ; my hands have stretched out the heavens (the 
summer just past), and all their host (the months thereof) have 
I commanded " (v. 12), but I am speaking of time past. Well ; 
as "I have raised him (the Earth) up in righteousness (into 
summer), I will yet direct his ways." He shall build my city 
(produce a crop), and he shall let go, i. e., liberate, my captives 
(the people in winter) without price or reward (v. 13). 

Egypt (first third of winter), Ethiopia (darkness= mid-win- 
ter) and Seba (swallowing=the end of winter), all chained to- 
gether (winter), shall come and bow dowm (below the equator) 
and supplicate thee ; saying, surely, " God (El) is in thee ; 
there is none else : there is an end of the Elohim " (Ram-Suns), 
i. e., it is winter. Ah! " verily, thou art a God {El) that hid- 
est thyself" (in winter Aries is above the horizon in the night, 
coming to his meridian in December), The Gods {Elohi) of 
Israel (summer) constitute the Savior, or at least the crops 
saved at the end of summer (v. 15). " They shall be ashamed 
and also confounded, all of them" (Who? Theologians? No ! 
they were always and ever will be shameless). The winter 
months, the makers of idols or images of the Sun, will be 



550 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

ashamed (v. 16). But Israel (the summer) shall be saved by 
its crops forever: Ye (the summer months) shall not be 
ashamed, nor confounded, i. e., without a crop (v. 17). The 
Gods (the Elohim) created the Earth, not in vain (not empty), 
but put a crop on it, that it might be habitable : I am the Lord 
(Jah veh), and there is none else, i. e., it is summer; the secret 
and dark place of the Earth (winter), where I cannot speak — 
can't cause vegetation to spring up ; I don't occupy : I speak 
righteously and declare things that are right. Therefore assem- 
ble, come together, ye that have escaped the nations (winter 
months), for they pray to a God (El) that cannot save — the 
barren winter Aries (v. 20). 

Oh, tell ye them (the spring months) and bring them near, 
that they may counsel together. Who hath announced this 
from the East (tefe;/i= spring equinox)? I, the Lord (Jahveh), 
did it, and there are no Gods (Elohim) without me (the sum- 
mer Sun) — a just God (El) and a Savior is not without me, 
i. e., without Jahveh, Elohim would be Elim = winter, and not 
summer. Therefore look unto me (winter), ends of the Earth, 
and be ye saved ; for now I am God (E*T), and there is none 
else. The Elohim are not yet. 

I have sworn by myself (i. e., all alone — have turned my 
southern solstice) ; the word has gone forth toward righteous- 
ness (summer), and cannot return, because I, the Sun, never 
travel backward. Every tongue and every knee shall bow 
unto me — come down to the winter solstice with me. Surely, 
he shall say of me, in the Lord (summer Sun) is righteousness 
and strength ; to him shall men come, and all that "snort " 
against him shall be ashamed (v. 24). The Hebrew ndhar 
means to snort, or to snore. The reference is to winter, which, 
as the night of year, snorts, or snores against, or opposite to, 
summer, and is ashamed, i. e., barren. 

In spring all the seed of Jacob (spring) shall grow and 
flourish (v. 25). 

Chap. xlvi. " Eel boweth down and Nebo stoopeth." Bel 
and Nebo have often been regarded as Babylonian, or Assyrian, 
names for the planets Jupiter and Mercury. Some, however, 
as Faber, think " Bel, or Baal, is the Sun " (Cahiri, vol. i, p. 



ISAIAH. 551 

188), and Nebo, the " tauric Noah " (Ibid, p. 123). Dr. Inman 
believes " Bel the same as il, the analogue of the Hebrew El 
(Anc. Faiths, vol. ii, p. 198). Nebo he derives from a root 
akin to n'bo=" to bubble forth ;" to " rmh—to sprout" and also 
to " nibh—fmit, or produce " (Ibid, vol. i, p. 125). In this 
sense, Nebo would equal the Elohim, or summer Gods. To this 
I have no objection, as then Nebo would equal summer. Fa- 
ber's " Tauric Noah" suggests . the planet Venus, as JSTebo. 
This is rather plausible, as, according to the astrologists, Venus 
has her "night-house" in the constellation Taurus. Any, or 
all, these guesses will answer my purpose. The language 
evidently relates to the winter season, when the Sun, Samson- 
like, is shorn of his rajs, on his entry into the southern hemi- 
sphere, and thus, during the winter months, seems but so many 
idols, or images, of the summer Sun. Hence, he is burden- 
some even to the weary beast (v. 1). " They (the Sun and 
Venus) stoop ; they bow down together," i. e., come to their 
inferior conjunction, when their souls (marginal reading) are 
gone into captivity — into the winter hemisphere.* Therefore, 
hearken unto me, O house of Jacob (spring), and the remnant 
of the house of Israel (the two constellations, Libra and Scor- 
pio, which, at the fall equinox, are just below the eastern 
horizon). " Let me bear you out of the belly " (out of the 
winter hemisphere). " Even to your old age " (the end of the 
year), I will bear you and deliver you out of winter. 

" To whom, then, will you liken me, and make me equal, 
and compare me, that we may be alike?" Why, they will 
liken you to yourself — to the barren El (Aries in winter), to 
the Ram without a mate, upon whom they have lavished so 
much gold and silver. They first weighed it out, you know, 
in the balance (Libra). The goldsmith (Tubal Cain) fashioned 
it into a God (El), when all fell down and worshiped it (at the 
winter solstice). Their devotions over, they shoulder and carry 
him to his place (spring equinox), beyond which he cannot 
pass, and stand him up (v. 7) ! 

Now, O ye transgressors (Hebrews), remember this, — be 
men again, i. e., cross over into the summer hemisphere, and 

* See chap. xiv. 



552 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

go to work, still bearing in mind the things of old (the past 
winter) ; for I am God (El), the Gods (Elohim) are not yet, 
nor is there any like me- (El). The antithesis in this and 
parallel passages is so manifestly apparent, that it is hardly 
conceivable how it has escaped the notice of Hebraists so long. 
The difference between El and Elohim ought not to escape 
the merest tyro in Hebrew, and would not, were it not for ed- 
ucation and preconceived notions. 

Declaring the end from the beginning (though the end is 
not far from the beginning of the year, he traveled very far 
indeed before making his declaration), my counsel shall stand. 
Calling a ravenous bird (the Eagle comes to its zenith at the 
spring equinox) from the east, and the man (Aquarius, or 
Moses) of my counsel, from a far country, my will shall be done 
as I have purposed it. So " hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, 
that are far from righteousness." " I now bring my righteous- 
ness near (spring, which is not far off), and my salvation 
shall not tarry." I will place salvation in Zion (the winter 
solstice, where the Sun, the Savior, is born every year) for 
Israel, my glory (the crops of summer). 

Chap, xlvii. Come down thou scarlet lady of Babylon. 
Thou hast drunk of the blood of the saints (Rev. xvii, 6) long 
enough. Come down, I say, and sit on the ground .(Virgo sets 
just before the spring equinox). There ; now, thou hast no 
throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans (division s= spring equi- 
nox). Note that as the Sun enters Capricorn at the winter 
solstice, Virgo has passed her zenith at sunrise ; hence the ad- 
dress — "come down." Coming to the horizon, as she does 
soon after, " there is no throne." Seated as she appears to be, 
like a slave woman, she is directed to take the millstones and 
grind meal. But this is the literal, not the hidden sense, which, 
as it is now the love season, the reader can readily imagine for' 
the fulfillment of her duties. At this time, too, Virgo foretells 
the coming of the summer crops, and thus becomes a prophet- 
ess. At this very time again, she is also called the witch of 
Endor (fountain gate = spring equinox), and brings up Samuel 
(the Earth), as we have already seen. "Uncover thy locks." 
Passing from the day, where she is veiled and unseen, into the 



ISAIAH. 553 

night hemisphere, Virgo uncovers her locks, and may be seen 
coming to her meridian in May. The balance of the verse 
refers to the frequent and well known scenes in semi-civilized 
and savage countries, at the time when the small streams are 
swollen (v. 2), and when the earth, being naked, is ashamed, 
of course. But I (Isaiah=the spring Sun), will take ven- 
geance — I will not meet thee as a man (the barren Earth), but 
as a woman (the Earth in summer). As for our Redeemer, the 
Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israeli the Sun of 
the seven summer months (v. 4). Therefore, sit thou silent as 
the night, and get thee into darkness (Yirgo as a night constel- 
lation), O daughter of the Chaldeans ; for thou shait no more 
be the lady of kingdoms (winter months= Babylon. 

I was wroth, as in winter, with my people, I polluted my 
inheritance, and gave them into thy hand. Thou didst show 
them no mercy (the weather was cold). "Upon the ancient 
hast thou laid a heavy yoke (v. 6). Thou (Yirgo) didst forget 
thyself then, and thou wouldst be a lady for ever (v. 7). Now 
thou dwellest securely in pleasant grounds (summer), and say- 
est I am, and there is none besides me, which is the very truth ; 
" I shall not sit as a widow, nor know the loss of children ; " 
now, I say, hear this: Two things shall happen, the loss of 
thy children and widowhood, to thee in one day '(the fall equi- 
nox). These two things shall happen when the crops are per- 
fected ; and because of the greatness of thy sorceries and 
enchantments, i. e., the summer ended, the Sun, her husband, 
has gone into winter quarters — is dead, and Yirgo has passed 
from the lower into the upper hemisphere. 

Notwithstanding thy wisdom and knowledge, or thy sor- 
ceries and enchantments (the forces which produce the summer 
crops), evil and desolation (winter) shall come upon thee, be- 
cause of thy wickedness (the Sun's S. declination), and thou 
shalt not know whence it ariseth (v. 10). Stand, now, in thy 
course, with thy enchantments and sorceries and the multitude 
of thy counsels, with which thou hast wearied thyself, if thou 
canst (v. 12). Thou canst not. Even the astrologers, star- 
gazers, and monthly prognosticators cannot save thee (v. 13) ; 
for, entering the day hemisphere, in autumn, the Sun puts a 



554 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

veil over thy face, and with his fires (rays) burns all thy coun- 
sels ; i. e., Yirgo is hidden from view by the overpowering rays 
of the Sun, and the weather begins to grow cooler from this 
time. 

Though the traveling merchants be with thee, they will 
ply their trade, which is usually best in winter, and will not 
save thee — none will save thee. 

Chap, xlviii. This chapter sets off from the summer sol- 
stice with Israel, or Summer, which had just " come forth out 
of the waters (latter rain) of Judah" (spring). Though the 
Israelites swear {seven) by the Lord (Jahveh), and call to mind 
(the end of summer) by the Gods {Elohi) of Israel, it is not in 
truth, nor in righteousness — not in truth, for there are not 
seven but only four months in Israel ; nor in righteousness, for 
the days grow shorter from and after the summer solstice. 
They call (name) themselves of the Holy City, and are sup- 
ported upon the G-ods {Elohi) of Israel. The Lord of hosts is 
his name, i. e., Aries of the summer months (v. 2). 

" I have declared the former things from the beginning. 
I did them suddenly," i. e., in the twinkling of an eye. The 
Sun of spring and summer was denoted by an 'jfifr. During 
spring, while the days lengthened, the eye opened ; the shorten- 
ing of the days during summer denoted its shutting (v. 3). 
" Thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass." The ancient 
summer (Israel) was made up, as I have often indicated, of the 
four months, July. August, September and October. The first 
two, as the hottest of the year, are the brass brow; the last two, 
leading directly into winter, or the iron age, form the neck of 
iron sinew. Time is obstinate, because it cannot be turned 
back (v. 4). 

This I have shown from the beginning, lest thou shouldst 
say : " Mine idol hath done them ; and my graven image, and 
my molten image hath commanded them." Did the Lord, 
then, have graven images and molten images and idols? Of 
course he did. We have his own word for it, and the fact is 
certain ! Now, ye priests, hush up, and cease to vilify those 
you call heathen, because they worship idols and images. The 
Lord sanctions their use: ye do even worse — deceive the 



ISAIAH. 555 

people by crying, Lord, Lord, when ye know not the Lord, nor 
care for him! Idol^the Sun's disk; graven image=the out- 
lined constellations; molten image=the Sun in any of the 
zodiacal constellations. 

" I will show you new things from this time " (summer sol- 
stice), i. e., I will show you such things as grow and ripen after 
harvest, which was then gathered (v. 6). " They are created 
now, and not from the beginning" of the year (v. 7). Of 
these you heard not, nor know; because, being "a transgressor 
from the womb (one who passes through the summer hemis- 
phere), I knew you would deal treacherously (pass into the 
winter again). However, for my own sake, i. e., on account of 
myself, for the sake of the good things, as the grapes, wine, 
etc., I will defer my anger, and not cut thee off yet (v. 9). It 
was also for my own sake (for the fruits of the season) that 
I chose you " in the furnace of affliction " (the hottest weather 
of the year) ; for my own sake, then (and I am equally inter- 
ested with you), I will do it — do what? Why, serve Israel 
as long as he can ; for why should he (the Sun) pollute his 
name by going into winter quarters before the appointed 
time ? " I will not give my glory (greatest heat) unto another" 

(V. 11). 

ISTow, O Jacob (spring), and Israel, my called (the summer 
then passing), " I am he (the Sun) ; I am the first, I am also 
the last," — the Sun always is (v. 12). "I laid the foundation 
(winter) of the Earth ; I have spanned the heavens ( just 
passed) with my right hand (summer, his left hand being win- 
ter). Thus assembled at the fall equinox, the Lord (Jahveh) 
assures them that he had loved them, but he will next do his 
pleasure on Babylon (winter), after which his arm will reach 
the Chaldeans (spring). He, at the end of summer, then, 
calls upon Cyrus (xlv, 1), Babylon, or winter, saying : " Come 
near, for I don't speak secretly." " The Lord-God (Adoni Jah- 
veh=the Sun at the fall equinox) and his spirit (the changing 
monsoon) have sent me to you, to say that I am the Lord (the 
Sun, as before), your redeemer," though just now the Holy 
One of Israel (summer Sun), I will show you the way in which 
you must travel to get back into summer (v. IT). Oh, how I 



556 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

wish you had listened to me and behaved yourselves, neither 
you nor your seed had got into this dismal prison, nor had 
been cut off and destroyed from before me (v. 19). But enough : 
" Go forth of Babylon, nee from the Chaldeans with a voice of 
singing, and say the Lord (Jahveh) hath redeemed his servant 
Jacob, i. e., that spring has come (v. 20). Tell them you had 
plenty of water while in the deserts (winter months) ; for 
Moses (Aquarius) clave the rock (the meridian) and "the 
water (rainy season) gushed out." " There is no peace, saith 
the Lord, unto the wicked " = the people in winter. 

Chap. xlix. Isaiah, the Savior, the Messiah, Christ, or the 
Sun, proclaims to the isles (winter) and the people, his birth at 
the winter solstice. The Lord, acting as midwife, brought 
him forth from the womb (winter) and hid him under his hand 
(the summer hemisphere); where he polished him, and made him 
shine as the Sun. Afterward he hid him in his quiver (the 
winter hemisphere). Unto Israel he said, thou art my servant, 
in whom I will be glorified (shine brightest). At this I' was 
very sorry, having spent my strength in vain. However, I 
now know that my judgment (reward = the crops) is with the 
Lord (summer), and my work with my God (Eloh=Ram-Sun 
=the Sun as connected with Aries in the upper hemisphere, 
where the crops are grown). The Lord fashioned me to bring 
Jacob (spring) back to him, which done, leaving Israel (sum- 
mer) as yet ungathered, I shall be glorious (shine brightly) in 
the Lord's eyes (in the spring), and my God (Elohi) shall be 
my strength (v. 5). The Lord said I needn't esteem it a light 
thing, as his servant (the Sun), to raise up the tribes of Jacob 
(spring), and after that to restore Israel (summer). He would 
also give me (the Sun) for a light to the nations, that the ends 
of the earth (the year) might be saved (v. 6). 

Said the Lord : In an acceptable time, when salvation 
(spring) is near, I will place you for a covenant to the people 
to raise up the desolated Earth, to be renewed and replenished. 
Then the prisoners, those shut up in the ark, in darkness, in 
winter, will go forth, as in Noah's days, to feed in high places 
(the summer months), where they will not hunger nor thirst, 
but be led by refreshing springs of water (latter rains) over my 



ISAIAH. 557 

highways (the summer). All shall come from far, from the 
north, from the west, and from the land of Sinim (winter). 

But spring has come. Therefore, sing, O heavens, and be 
joyful, Earth. The Lord (Jahveh) has comforted his people, 
for spring is here. But poor Zion (winter) is in affliction (is 
past), because the Lord (Jahveh) hath forsaken me, and my 
Lord (Adoni) has forgotten me (v. 14). Never mind, Zion, 
though a woman forget her sucking child, I will not forget 
thee (v. 15). "1 have graven thee upon the palms of my 
hands, and thou art continually before (opposite) me — the two 
halves of the year are always opposite each other — and soon 
I will be with thee again. 

Winter again ! But look and behold, all these (summer 
constellations) even now gather and come to thee (Zion = 
winter). Summer being past, winter will deck herself with its 
products. Thy waste and desolate places will be too narrow 
for thy successors. Thou, desolate and captive, moving to and 
fro, coming and going, wilt ask in surprise, " Who has begot- 
ten me these? I was left alone; where were these? 1 ' Thus, 
says the Lord God (Adoni Jahveh = fall equinox), I will lift up 
my hand to the Gentiles (i. e., bring winter), and the people 
shall bring your sons and daughters in their arms and on their 
shoulders (v. 22). Kings and queens (the summer months) 
shall nurse Zion (summer feeds winter). They shall bow down 
with their faces to the earth, and thou, Zion, shalt know that I 
am the Lord. They that wait for me (summer) shall never be 
ashamed (v. 23). "Shall the lawful captive be delivered?" 
Of course he will. The Lord will take the captives (the sum- 
mer months) from the mighty (winter), and, contending witli 
the contender, will save the people (v. 25). Your oppressors 
(the winter months) will consume themselves and pass away, 
and all flesh shall know that the Loud is thy Savior and thy 
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob, or the Sun of Spring ! 

Chap. 1. Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, 
whom I have just put away? Have I sold you? Not at all. 
" Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for 
your transgressions is your mother put away." That is, when 
the summer constellations begin to set, Virgo rises into the 



558 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

upper hemisphere, and so is put away — divorced ; and this 
divorcement is brought about every year by the passage of the 
Sun into the lower hemisphere. The Lord, however, adduces 
a novel reason (the conduct of his children) for thus divorcing 
his wife ! Admitted into our modern courts, this cause would 
considerably increase our present facilities for divorce-making. 
Shall we adopt it ? What say ye, theologians ? It is of the 
Lord, and a beautiful precedent it is; isn't it? 

Am I powerless ? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea 
(rainy season = winter), I make the rivers a wilderness, and 
their fish stink, i. e., on the approach of spring, the fishes 
(Pisces) come up out of the sea, the dark winter hemisphere, 
into the light or summer hemisphere, and so die — become 
invisible (v. 2). But that is in the future ; at present " I 
clothe the heavens with blackness," — send the summer con- 
stellations into the dark or night hemisphere (v. 3). But, 
having reached the limit of my rule, the Lord-God (Adoni- 
Jahveh) has taught me to speak to the weary (summer) in 
season, i. e., at the proper time=spring. When he (Adoni- 
Jahveh) spake to me ( Jahveh) I did not rebel, " neither turned 
away my back" (he showed his back parts to Moses, — Ex. 
xxxiii, 23), but gave it to the smiters (the winter months); 
and my cheeks (the Sun's disk) to them (Delilah and the 
Philistines) that plucked off the hair (Jud. xvi, 19). I, the 
Sun, hid my face from shame and spitting (winter = shame, and 
Tophet=the spit-upon-place). I did this because I knew the 
Lord-God (Adoni- Jahveh) would help me. Yes, in a short 
time he will bring me to the spring equinox and my shame 
will pass off (v. 7). 

Spring! Ah! here he is; he (the equinoctial Sun) that 
justifieth me. Who will contend with me now? Nobody. 
Let us (the winter and the summer Sun = Adoni- Jahveh) stand 
up together, at the spring equinox. Now, who is the Baal (the 
master) of my judgment, i. e., of the spring equinox? Why, 
neither the winter nor the summer Sun, of course. I know, 
however, that the Lord-God (Adoni-Jahveh=spring equinox) 
will help me ; none can hinder. They (the winter constella- 
tions) shall wax old and pass away, as if eaten by moths (v. 9). 



ISAIAH. 559 

Who is there among you that fears the Lord (Jahveh), that 
obe} T s the voice of his servant (the Sun), that walks in dark- 
ness and has no light? Why, the summer constellations, of 
course, for they are all below the horizon at sunrise in the 
spring. Trusting in the Lord and led on by Aries, each will 
walk, in turn, in the light kindled by his conjunction with the 
Sun. Coming in the same order to the autumnal equinox, 
each will lie down in sorrow = winter. 

Chap. li. Summer and winter alternate: Ye that seek 
righteousness (spring) and the Lord (summer), look back to the 
rock (winter solstice) whence ye are hewn, and to the hole 
(winter) whence ye are dug out (v. 1). Then look forward to 
your father Abraham (summer) and to Sarah (Yirgo) that bare 
you. The Lord called Abraham and blessed him (with a crop). 
This crop will comfort (feed) winter (Zion), and make it cheer- 
ful as summer (Eden) until spring returns. Then the heavens 
will vanish as smoke, and the earth wax old, bringing winter. 
Having cut Kahab (Yirgo in winter) and the dragon (v. 9), 
dried up the waters (rainy season), and made a way for the 
ransomed (Sun past the winter solstice) to pass over, summer 
returns (v. 10). The redeemed (summer) goes back to Zion 
(winter) rejoicing (v. 11) in the comforts (the crops) the Lord 
(summer) had brought (v. 12) ; and though having forgotten 
the Lord, with plenty of bread, who fears the oppressor? 
Nevertheless, the captive exile hopes his bread will hold out 
and he not die in the pit (v. 14). The Lord having covered 
the Zion, or winter Sun, with the shadow of his hand, that he 
might plant the heavens (the Sun being born at the winter 
solstice) and lay the foundation of the Earth, and say unto 
Zion, thou art my people (v. 16). This done, Jerusalem (win- 
ter solstice), which has partaken of the cup of trembling 
(winter), and thus become afflicted and drunken, but not with 
wine (v. 21) ; whose sons, having fainted, lie at the head (win- 
ter solstice) of all the streets (v. 20), awake, stand up. Thy 
Lord the Lord (Adoni-Jahveh), and thy God (Elohi), has taken 
the cup of trembling out of thy hand (v. 22), and will again 
put it into the hand of thy tormentors — winter (v. 23). 

Chap, lii begins with winter: "Awake, O Zion," i. e., come 



560 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

on winter; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, i. e., 
let the summer stars be seen by night. The uncircumcised 
will bother thee no more, for all on coming to this point (the 
end of the year) are circumcised — passed around the circle 
(v. 1). The first of January is circumcision day.* O Jerusa- 
lem ; O captive daughter of Zion (Babylon), ye have sold 
yourselves for naught (winter produces naught) ; but ye shall 
be redeemed without money (redemption takes place at the 
spring equinox, when the Earth is bare). A few months will 
make all right again, however (v. 3). Aforetime my people 
went down into Egypt— winter (Gen. xlvi, 6), where the 
Assyrian (the cold) oppressed them without cause ; gave them 
nothing but hard labor, which caused them to howl and blas- 
pheme my name daily (v. 5). 

Therefore, my people (summer) shall learn my name, in the 
day that I shall speak and say : " Behold me ! " for it will then 
be spring, when all exclaim : How beautiful upon the mountains 
(spring months) are the feet of himf who brings good tidings; 
who publishes salvation ; who says unto Zion, thy God reigneth 
— it is spring (v. 7). When the Lord brings Zion, " they shall 
see eye to eye," i. e., the two solstices are upon the horizon 
(v. 8). Therefore, sing now, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for 
the Lord has comforted his people — brought them a crop 
(v. 9). The Lord has bared his holy (sunny) arm, and all 
the nations shall see the salvation of our Gods (the summer 
crops). 

Therefore, touch no unclean thing ; but go on through the 
summer months (v. 11); don't be in a hurry; let the Lord 
lead you, and the God of Israel (Aries at the end of summer) 
will gather you up (v. 12). My servant (the Earth) shall pros- 
per through the summer, be exalted and extolled, because of 
his bounteous crops (v. 13). Six months ago, his face was so 
marred and unsightly, that many were astonished at it (v. 14); 
but now, when his visage is so much improved, kings even, 
are ready to bow down to him, and consider the things thus 

* Circumcision always takes place where the year ends, be that where it may. 

t The end of the year is at the spring equinox, and is denoted by the feet of '■ the 
Man" in the almanac. They are beautiful, oh, how beautiful! because they indicate 
that winter is past. 



ISAIAH. 561 

spread before them. Nevertheless, with his October rains, he 
will sprinkle many nations. 

Chap. liii. The prophet (Isaiah) having, as related in the 
preceding chapter, passed from the winter solstice around the 
circle, bringing up at the point whence he set out, complains 
of unbelief. The Lord's arm, though bared six months before, 
is not now bared. Though fully grown, like some insects, at 
his birth, the Savior (the Sun) will grow up like a tender plant, 
and as " a root out of dry ground," i. e., he will acquire his 
power of imparting heat to the earth, slowly. Not possessed 
of a comely form, as in summer, he is despised and rejected of 
men ; a man of sorrows (winter), he is acquainted with grief 
(winter weather); hiding, as it were, his faces from us (one 
daily, through the winter), we esteemed him not (v. 3). True, 
though he seemed to suffer with ourselves, yet for all that, we 
thought him stricken of the Gods, as he certainly was (v. 4). 
But the Gods wounded him for our transgressions, and bruised 
him for our iniquities, i. e., the summer constellations passed, 
like sheep, one after the other, over the equinoctial line, until 
they brought him down, away down, to his southern tropic, 
where the Lord laid the iniquities of us all, as the priests laid 
" all the sins of the people " upon the scape-goat's head (Lev. 
xvi, 21), upon him ! The load was very great, as it was made 
up of the Sun's south declination. This was, of course, very 
kind of the Lord ; for, though he was oppressed — borne down 
and grievously afflicted, yet, as a lamb brought to the slaughter, 
he was dumb — silent, as in winter; he opened not his mouth 
(didn't give off his heat as in summer). His merciless per- 
secutors had removed him from judgment (the equinox), by 
distress (winter), and so had cut him off from the land of the 
living (summer). Who, then, shall declare his generation, his 
birth, for it happens about this time (winter solstice) every 
y ear ! 

Stricken by his people (the stars), he made his grave with 
the wicked (the two thieves, summer and winter, or Aaron and 
Moses, between whom he was crucified), and with the rich 
(Pluto, Josephs merchants, who buy and hoard up the pro- 
visions) in his death (the end of the year). Though he had 
36 



562 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

done no violence, nor practiced any deceit, "it pleased the 
Lord to bruise him ! " Of course the Lord, like little children, 
must have his fun — must torture the 'worm to see him squirm ! 
However, having tortured his soul out of him, the Lord begins 
to lengthen the days, and soon the pleasure of the Lord shall 
prosper in his hand (the crops will grow). Thus he shall see 
of the travail of his soul (summer heat), and be satisfied with 
the crops. In his righteousness (summer) my servant (the Sun) 
shall justify many, — give a reward for the seed sown. After 
summer he will bear their iniquities (their — the stars' ■ — south- 
ern course) with them, and so be numbered with the transgres- 
sors, bearing the same sins (deviations from the equator) as they. 

Dividing his time between the righteous and the transgres- 
sors — between summer and winter, though by pouring out his 
soul he is numbered with the latter, and makes intercession for 
them; he shall divide the spoil with, or rather among, the 
strong, i. e., the crops which grew during the summer shall be 
distributed over the two great divisions or halves of the year. 

Chap. liv. " Sing, O barren that didst not bear ; break 
forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail 
with child ; for more are the children of the desolate than the 
children of the married wife, saith the Lord " (v. 1). 

The time here referred to is spring, as denoted by the sing- 
ing, and the passage refers to the constellation Virgo as she 
was during the five winter months just past. In the winter just 
ended, though the Earth was desolate and bare, the unmarried 
Virgo, it is feigned, gave birth to the SUN, precisely at the 
midnight of the winter solstice, at the moment when the 
bright star Spica Virginis appeared in the East, above the 
horizon. Now the Sun, and especially the summer Sun, being 
the producer, or the maker of all, is certainly greater than all 
his works — his products including even the earth itself. This 
is not only mythologically, but it is scientifically, true. Hence 
the children (the Sun) of the desolate, or of the unmarried 
women of winter, are more, i. e., greater, than the children of 
the married wife, the Virgo of summer, which are only the 
products of summer. 

When, by the revolving of the heavens, Virgo is brought 



ISAIAH. 563 

down to the western horizon, as in spring, opposite the rising 
Sun, she is married to the Sun, which then becomes the 
"Lord of hosts "=the seven summer mouths. Thus "she en- 
larges the place of her tents' 1 — has the seven summer months 
instead of the five winter months ; and thus, too, she makes 
"the desolate cities to be inhabited.'" 

Regard not, O Virgo, the past winter, when you were a 
widow, and the Earth barren in consequence (v. 4). You now 
(spring) find a husband in jour creator, the Sun, who is the 
Lord of hosts, i. e., the summer Sun. He is your redeemer, 
or purchaser, and the Holy (sunny) One of Israel. He shall 
be called the Gods (Elohi) of all the earth, i. e., of the summer 
season, for in winter the Earth counts for nothing (v. 5). 
True ; the Lord (Sun), " in a little wrath,'' hid his face, and 
seemed to forsake you, but this was only a freak of the love 
passion, and momentary, as it were, lasting during the preva- 
lence of the waters of Noah upon the earth — 150 days. This 
was but a short time any way, you know, and not long enough 
to cause him to forget when he refused (left) his wife (Sun leav- 
ing Virgo). You needn't be so downhearted any longer, but 
put away your grief; for he now (spring) recalls you, and will 
gather you with great mercies (the harvests), — Sun re-enters 
Virgo (vv. 6, 9). The mountains and hills (winter months) 
are now removed, and my kindness is with you. Oh, you af- 
flicted, tempest-tossed and comfortless ! I will now deck your 
stones (months) with fair colors (flowers), and lay your foun- 
dations (grounds) in sapphires=precious things=the fruits. I 
will make your suns, not windows, as falsely translated, but 
suns, bright, and your gates (months) I will make sparkling 
stones (sunny months), and all of your borders pleasant stones 
(Edens). Your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great 
shall be the peace (the crops) of your children. Established in 
righteousness (Virgo comes to her meridian in May), you will 
be far from oppression (winter), and need not fear (v. 14). 
They (the summer months) shall surely gather together, i. e., 
summer will end, but not by me (the Lord), and shall fall for 
thy sake, — Virgo, being the last of the northern constellations, 
the fall takes place when she leaves the Sun (v. 15). 



5G4 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

The smith, Tubal-Cain or Vulcan, blows the coals in win- 
ter, and the weapons (winter months) formed against thee don't 
prosper — don't produce. The heritage of the servants of the 
Lord is a good crop, and this is the reward of those that culti- 
vate the land in summer. 

Chap. lv. The season, here indicated by "the waters," or 
the latter rain, is spring, when people are apt to thirst after 
their Gods (Elohim = Ram-Suns, or summer months), i. e., long 
for the coming of summer. During the warm season, nomads 
wander here and there with their flocks, milk their cows, goats 
and asses, and gather the wild grapes, and so procure their 
milk and wine " without money, or price " — with their labor 
(v. 1). It is bad policy to spend money and labor out of 
season for an insufficiency of food, or for that which is of bad 
quality. The summer is the season in which to obtain good 
food ; for it is then you grow fat (v. 2). Therefore listen : 
come unto me (the summer Sun), and I will make an everlast- 
ing covenant (bargain) with you, by which, if you labor, you 
will obtain " the sure mercies of David," i. e., the products of 
summer, without money (v. 3). It was for this purpose that I 
(Isaiah) gave David (summer) for a witness in behalf of the 
people (v. 4). Behold, " thou (equinoctial Sun) shalt call up a 
nation (constellation) that thou knowest not, and nations* that 
know not thee, shall come unto thee, because of the Lord of 
thy Gods (Elohi = summer months), and the Holy (sunny) One 
of Israel (v. 5). Therefore, seek the Lord while he may be 
found : call upon him while he is near," i. e., make hay while 
the sun shines — provide during summer for the coming win- 
ter (v. 6). 

" Let the wicked and iniquitous man forsake his way (win- 
ter) and return unto the Lord ; he will have mercy upon him 
(give him food and raiment) ; and unto our Gods (Elohi = Ram- 
Suns), for they will abundantly pardon," i. e., untie or loosen, 
as the original literally means, from the bonds of winter (v. 7). 
" Remember this, for my ways are not your ways, nor my 
thoughts, your thoughts" — summer is not winter (v. 8). "As 

* The word goi, here translated nation and nations, is from the root gavah. "to ascend 
and appear visible aloft " (FuersVs Heb. Lex., p. 270). and refers andouhtedly to the zodia- 
cal constellations as the)* successively come in conjunction with the Sun. 



ISAIAH. 



565 



the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher 
than your ways" — summer is warmer than winter; " for the 
snow and rain come down from heaven, and water the earth, 
and cause it to bring forth seed to the sower and bread to the 
eater," i. e., brings a bare subsistence to the producer, and lux- 
ury to the idler (v. 10). " My word (the Sun's influence) don't 
go forth to return empty, but it accomplishes my pleasure," 
i. e., the summer produces according to the season, little or 
much (v. 11). In spring the people set out upon their work 
with joy, while the birds sing, and the trees bud, blossom and 
produce fruit (v. 12). Instead of the thorn (emblem of win- 
ter) shall come up the barosL the creation, or summer, — not 
" iir-tree," as fraudulently translated ; and instead of the brier 
(another winter emblem) shall come up the hadas (whatever 
shoots forth), i. e., the vegetation of spring and summer ; and 
this vegetation of summer always was and always will be for 
a name to the Lord = summer. 

Chap. lvi. The Lord now, in the spring, says : " Keep 
judgment and do justice," get ready for work, for my salva- 
tion is near, and my righteousness (reliability) will be shown 
in the future crop (v. 1). " Blessed is the man that does this," 
i. e., the work of summer ; that keeps from polluting the sab- 
bath, i. e., that keeps out of winter, and does no evil, for the 
winter is the sabbath, or time for rest, of the Lord (Jahveh) ; 
while the Lord (Adoni) works (v. 2). Now don't let the son 
(Sun) of the stranger (outsider = winter) that has joined himself 
to the Lord, i. e., that has become the summer Sun, speak and 
say the Lord has utterly separated him from his people (winter), 
neither let the eunuch (the barren one= winter) say "1 am a 
dry tree" (v. 3); for, "thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs 
(barren ones) that keep my sabbaths (the winters) and choose 
what pleases me (the new year's Sun) ; unto them will I give 
in mine house (summer) a name better than sons and daughters; 
an everlasting name, that of Immanuel, which shall not be cut 
off, or forgotten " (v. 5). 

The sons of the stranger (winter), which join themselves to 
the Lord (summer), to serve and love him ; that keep from pol- 
luting the sabbath (winter) and take hold of his covenant 



566 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

(spring equinox), them he will bring to his holy mountain (the 
summer solstice) and make them joyful in the house of prayer, 
i. e., in the "three months" between the summer solstice and 
the fall equinox, when the Lord blessed Obed-edom with wine, 
— made the people joyful. Their burnt offerings (the summer 
months just past) and their sacrifices (holy-makings) are ac- 
cepted upon the Lord's altar at the fall equinox, between the 
shoulders of Benjamin, or, the letting-down place, i. e., the 
point where the Earth enters the winter hemisphere. From 
this point, the Lord-God (Adoni- T ahveh=the autumnal Sun) 
will gather the outcasts of Israel (Libra and Scorpio) and 
others (Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces) unto him, 
i. e., the six southern constellations (v. 8). The beasts of the 
field and of the forest come on now to devour; for his (the 
Lord's= Adoni's) watchmen are blind, ignorant and dumb dogs, 
and cannot bark (v. 10). Ceasing to be productive, they (the 
winter months) now become greedy dogs — strong of appetite, 
shepherds " that look to their own way ; every one for his own 
gain ; saying, " we will fill ourselves with strong drink ; and 
to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. 

Chap. lvii. Thus " the righteous perish and no man layeth 
it to heart ; " merciful men (the summer months) are removed, 
and summer is past (v. 1). Evil (winter) follows. Peace (win- 
ter solstice) shall come, and they (the summer constellations) 
shall rest in their beds (winter hemisphere), each walking 
" straight before the one following," or in line (Ges. Heb. Zex., 
p. 673). But draw near hither, ye sons (winter months) of 
the sorceress (Yirgo=the witch of Endor), the seed of the ad- 
ulterer (Sun in winter hemisphere) and the whore (Virgo in 
winter). Against whom do } r ou now sport? Are you not the 
children of transgression, a seed of falsehood — of winter, 
which bears "thorns also and thistles?" Why inflame your- 
selves with the rams (elim)? — not idols, as falsely translated. 
This inflammation took place, be it noted, " under every green 
tree" (the summer months), i. e., after the end of summer, 
when they (the winter constellations) begin to slay the children 
summer constellations) in the valleys (winter hemisphere) under 
the clefts of the rocks (winter solstice). 



ISAIAH. 567 

The smooth stones (summer constellations) of the stream 
(zodiac) is thy portion, O Virgo — thy lot : To them hast 
thou poured out a drink offering (wine), and a meat (bread) 
offering; shall I comfort myself with these? I think so (v. 6). 
But lo ! upon a high mountain (Yirgo in her zenith) thou hast 
set thy bed (winter being the night of the year) ; thither thou 
wentest up to offer — to make thyself sunny, the time being 
sunrise (v. 7). 

"Behind the doors (fall equinox) thou hast set up thy re- 
membrance (left thy children, — see Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 279), for 
thou hast discovered (uncovered) thyself to another (the winter) 
than me (the summer)." The Sun, leaving Yirgo, finds the 
Earth (Joseph) naked, he (Joseph) having left his mantle with 
Asenath (Yirgo), the wife of Poti-pherah = the bringer of evil 
= winter. Six months later, he married his master's wife, 
Asenath before named, whose solicitations he had formerly so 
strongly resisted. " Thou art gone up." Leaving the Sun, 
Yirgo ascends into the upper hemisphere (v. 8). u Thou went 
est to the king with ointment." At the approach of spring, 
Yirgo comes opposite the Sun, which is then the Lord's an- 
ointed. Then she increases her perfumes (the flowers appear). 
She also sends her messengers (they that " go in a circle," or 
the constellations which precede her) afar off, and debases her- 
self down into hell (Sheol), into the night hemisphere, coming 
to her meridian in May (v. 9). Though wearied by her jour- 
ney, she was not without hope, for, finding the life (the crops) 
of her hand, she was not grieved (v. 10). Forgetting the Lord 
(i. e., leaving the summer hemisphere), she lied, committed 
adultery, crossed the equinoctial line south, and kept company 
with the Sun in the winter hemisphere ; with the oppressor 
whom she feared ; but the Lord (summer) held his peace, so 
she didn't fear him (v. 11). Returning again to the Lord, he 
will show her righteousness and works (the crops), but they 
shall not profit her, for when gathered winter is at hand, and 
she is again with the oppressor (v. 12). Then, when she cries, 
her companions cannot help her, but the wind will remove 
them ; but he (Aries) that putteth his trust in the Lord, will 
again possess the land and inherit the holy mountain (v. 13). 



568 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

Then he (Aries) will cry : " Cast ye up ; cast ye up, prepare the 
way, take up the stumbling block (winter) out of the way of my 
(the Lord's) people=the summer months. For thus saith the 
high and lofty One (the Sun), whose name is holy (sunny) : I 
dwell in the high and holy place (spring equinox), and will 
revive the spirit of the humble and contrite ones," i. e., will 
bring up the summer constellations from below the Earth, or 
out of hell. Thus the Lord (Adoni) will not contend forever, 
or be always wroth — but only during the winter ; for in that 
case, " the spirit would fail before me, and the souls which I 
have made," i. e., summer would not come. For the iniquity 
of his (the winter Sun's) robberies I was wroth and hid myself 
(in the winter Sun), when he went his own way. Neverthe- 
less, I will heal and restore the comforts (the crops) to him 
and his mourners (v. 18). " I (the Lord or summer) create the 
fruit of the lips," i. e., the eatables, and bring peace to both far 
and near, and heal (shine upon) all (v. 19). But the wicked 
(winter) cannot rest, for there is no peace, saith my God (Eloh), 
to the wicked — there is no summer in winter. 

Chap, lviii. Here we set out where we left off at the end 
of the preceding chapter — from the winter solstice. The Sun, 
on reaching his southernmost limit, shows the people and the 
house of Jacob (spring) the precise amount of their transgres- 
sion, which is equal to the Sun's south declination = 23^°. At 
the winter solstice, i. e., at Christmas, the people celebrate the 
birth of the new year's Sun = the Savior. They cry out and 
" hold not back " (Ges. Ileb. Lex., p. 351), i. e., they express their 
joy without restraint, at the prospect of spring ; for they, like us, 
" ask of me (Isaiah=the Savior) the ordinances of Justice" — 
to come to the spring equinox ; and " take delight in approach- 
ing the Gods" (Elohim=the Ram-Suns of summer). Now, 
reader, don't forget that Aries comes to his meridian at the 
winter solstice, whence he and the Sun approach until they 
come in conjunction at the spring equinox; and thus the 
people take delight in approaching the Gods (Elohim) or sum- 
mer (v. 2). 

Fasting for " the affliction of the soul ; for strife and de- 
bate," and " to smite with the fist of wickedness ; " fasting, 



ISAIAH. 569 

which causes man " to bow down his head, and spread sack- 
cloth under him," i. e., the inconveniences of winter was not 
ordained of the Lord (Jahveh = summer) ; this was the work 
of Satan or the Devil — the Evil One= winter ! Winter is not 
acceptable to the Lord (Jahveh, — see history of Cain, Gen. iv). 
The Lord (Jahveh) chooses " to loose the bands of wickedness ; 
to undo the burdens (of winter), and let the oppressed go free 
— to break every yoke — to deal bread to the hungry, clothe 
the naked," etc. This is the business of the Lord (Jahveh), or 
summer. 

Thus, if thou teed the hungry and clothe the naked, as 
summer does ; and hide not thyself from thyself, as the sum- 
mer Sun hides itself in the winter Sun, then thou wilt be the 
summer Sun, and thy light will break forth in the morning 
(spring), and the glory of the Lord " shall gather thee up " (to 
the summer solstice). Then thou wilt call (shine), and the 
Lord (summer air) will answer (grow warm, — the greatest heat 
follows the summer solstice) ; then thy light will rise from 
darkness (mid-winter), and thy obscurity (the gloom of winter) 
shall be as noonday. ; ' Then the Lord will guide thee continu- 
ally, and satisfy thy soul in drought" i. e., the harvest will 
ripen as the dry season comes on ; then wilt thou be like a 
spring of water that does not fail — wilt have plenty of bread 
for all (v. 11). Thus, having rebuilt the waste places (the deso- 
lation of winter), thou (summer) wilt be called the repairer of 
the breach (the waste of winter). 

The same sentiments are summed up in the last two verses 
of this chapter as follows : " If thou wilt turn thy foot from 
the sabbath (winter, when the Earth rests from producing) ; 
doing thy pleasure on my holy day (summer) ; and wilt, in- 
stead of the sabbath, call in enjoyment unto the ' Holy place ' 
(FuersVs Heb. Lex., p. 1217) of the Lord, which is to be hon- 
ored, and wilt honor it, by doing thine own ways ; by seeking 
thine own pleasure, and speaking thine own word (without first 
consulting the priest) ; then shalt thou delight thyself in the 
Lord (i. e., during summer), and I, Isaiah (the summer Sun), 
will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth, and 
will cause thee to be fed with the heritage (harvest) of Jacob 



570 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

(spring), thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken." 
What glorious promises ! and what rich rewards await those 
w^hom our priests call sabbath-breakers ! 

Note, — though my translation of the last two verses of this 
chapter differs materially from that of James I, and so will not, 
of course, meet w T ith the approval of the clergy, yet the impar- 
tial reader will observe that the sentiment harmonizes through- 
out, while the vulgar translation contradicts itself. The object 
and aim of this chapter is to describe the transition from win- 
ter into summer, as regards men's use of time and the rewards 
connected therewith, rest being in the main characteristic of 
the former, and labor of the latter. Therefore if, at the end 
of winter, which is barren, you will sow r seed and cultivate the 
tender plants to enable them to grow, you will, at the end of 
the season, reap a rich reward in the crop which is sure to fol- 
low. 

Chap. lix. In this chapter we learn " the damnable nature 
of sin," summed up according to the experience of a semi-bar- 
barous and uncivilized people. The Lord's (Jahveh's) hand is 
not shortened, nor is he deaf, but the people by their iniquities 
have parted from their Gods (Elohim), the Earth having come 
between them (Aries) and the Sun. Thus their sins (south 
declination) have hid their Gods' faces from them that they 
will not hear. Hence, they defile themselves with blood and 
iniquity (the inconveniences of winter), speak lies, and mutter 
perverseness= opposition. 

They don't call for justice, which comes with spring, be- 
cause they know it would be vain ; therefore " they conceive 
mischief, and bring forth iniquity" (winter solstice, as being the 
limit of the Sun's S. declination) ; and at the same time amuse 
themselves with eating and hatching " cockatrice's eggs" (the 
old and the new year's Sun). " He (the old year) that eateth 
of their eggs, dieth ; and that which is crushed breaketh out 
into a viper " (from Latin vivo, to live, i. e., into a living being 
=the new year's Sun). Tsiphoni, here translated cockatrice 
(old French crocodile, — see Web., unab. — was an animal 
sacred to Typhon, or the north, i. e., it signified winter, be- 
cause a hibernating animal (seeBunsen's Egypt, vol. i, p. 422). 



ISAIAH. 571 

It is from a root signifying to breathe, to live, and, like viper, 
signifies a living being — in this place the new year's Sun, or 
the Earth as it appears after the winter solstice. 

" The spider's web " doubtless refers to the apparent sjriral 
motion of the Sun as it seems to descend to and return from 
its winter solstice, thus weaving, as it were, a kind of network 
resembling somewhat the web of the arachnidian named. Of 
course this kind of web couldn't be used for garments, or to 
hide evil=the cold weather of winter.* 

Knowing nothing of peace (summer) their feet run to evil 
(winter) ; judgment is far from them, so they don't fear justice. 
They grope as without eyes (winter is blind), and stumble at 
noonday as in the night, because they are in desolate (de-solate) 
places; and are as dead ; and much more of like import in rela- 
tion to the evils of winter. 

However, at the proper time, " the Redeemer (the new 
year's Sun) shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn (at 
the southern tropic) from the transgressions in Jacob," or the 
departure from spring (v. 20). The covenant of spring will at 
length come, and the Lord's spirit (the warm air of spring) 
will also appear and last from u henceforth and for ever," i. e., 
during the summer of seven months, the length of the Lord's 
(Jahveh's) life ! 

Chap. Ix. At the close of the last chapter my reader found 
the Sun just turned of his winter solstice ; hence the exhorta- 
tion, Arise, O Sun ; shine, for thy light cometh, is coming, 
and the glory of the Lord (the genial air of summer) shall rise 
upon, or rather with thee (v. 1). For, behold, darkness (winter) 
covers the Earth, and gross darkness the people. The nations 
shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy (the 
Sun's) rising. So lift up thy eyes, O Sun, and see: Behold, 
already they gather and come to thee with the wealth of the 
nations (the spoil of the Egyptians), with the camels and 
dromedaries of Midian (strife= the variable weather between 

* Loke, the Scandinavian devil, wove the net in which he was caught and ruined, after 
he, in the shape of a mare, had given hirth to Odin's eight-footed (the spider has eight feet) 
horse Sleipner, or the winds which blow from the " eight quarters of heaven " {Anderson's 
Norse Myth., pp. 222 and 401). These are most easily pointed out from either of the equi- 
noxes. 



572 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

winter and summer) and Ephah (darkness = winter) and Sheba 
(Cush= winter) laden with the gold (the golden fleece=the 
bright rays of the summer Sun) of Ophir (over, i. e., from 
winter) and incense (the sweet flowers of spring, which always 
show forth the praises of the Lord or summer). The flocks of 
Kedar (blackness= winter), too, will gather unto thee, and the 
rams of Nebaioth (rams of the heights=Elohim= Ram-Suns 
or summer months) shall minister unto thee (the Earth) 
acceptably (produce the harvest), and " glorify the house (sum- 
mer solstice) of my glory " (v. 7). The migratory birds, as the 
dove, now begin to show themselves ; and the ships of Tar- 
shish (Argo-Navis of the southern hemisphere) come laden 
with the gold and silver unto the name of the Lord of thy 
Gods (Elohim). The sons of strangers (outsiders = winter 
months), i. e., the summer months, shall build up thy walls, 
and their kings (months) shall minister unto thee, i. e., feed 
the people. For, in my wrath (winter), I smote thee ; but 
now (summer) I will have mercy on thee. Therefore, i. e., for 
this purpose, thy gates (the cardinal points) shall be open day 
and night, that the wealth of the nations (spoil of the Egyp- 
tians) may be brought to thee. For the nation (winter) which 
will not serve thee shall perish. " The glory of Lebanon shall 
come unto thee" at the spring equinox, where the place of his 
feet (Pisces answers to the feet, — see almanac) is made glorious 
(the spring equinox was between Pisces and Aries). The sons 
(summer months) of them (the winter months) that afflicted 
thee, shall come bending unto thee (by the apparent revolu- 
tion of the heavens the zodiacal constellations seem to approach 
the Sun) ; while they (the winter constellations) that despised 
thee shall fall at thy feet (Pisces=end of the year), and they 
shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion (winter solstice) 
of the Holy One (the Sun) of Israel (Zion, or the winter sol- 
stice, was ever the birth-place of the Sun, or Lord ; hence 
named the city of the Lord, or of the Sun = the On, or 
Heliopolis of the ancients). " Thou (summer Sun) hast 
been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee" 
(of course not), but " I will make thee an eternal excellency, 
a joy, leaping from circle to circle" i. e., summer will 



ISAIAH. 573 

come every year, each producing its crop, and so a joy forever 
(v. 15). 

" Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles (winter) and the 
breast of kings," whence thou wilt learn from this rather dry 
sucking that I, the Lord (Jahveh) am thy savior and thy 
redeemer, the Mighty One (Sun) of Jacob (spring). Thus, I, 
the Lord, will bring gold and silver in place of brass and 
iron — summer in place of winter (v. 17). Violence, wasting 
and destruction (winter) shall not come within the borders of 
summer, but summer shall be called Salvation and Praise 
(v. 18). The winter Sun and Moon will no more give thee 
(summer) light; but the Lord of thy Gods (Elohi) shall be 
unto thee a light that shall endure to the end of summer. Thy 
people shall be righteous, i. e., shall cease quarreling, as in 
winter, go to work and produce a crop to quarrel about the 
succeeding winter. 

Thus, "a little one (their sown seed) shall become a thou- 
sand (the crop), and a small nation shall become a large and 
strong one,'' — the Lord (summer) prospering all. 

Chap. lxi. It is again spring, and the spirit (the monsoon) 
of the Lord of heaven (Adoni-jahveh' H ' = spring Sun) is upon 
me (the Earth). The Lord (summer Sun) appointed me to 
announce glad tidings unto all — the meek and the broken- 
hearted : to proclaim liberty to the captives, by opening the 
prison of winter ; " to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," 
or, as being nearer the original, " to summon, or call forth the 
delights of summer " and the day of vengeance (the day of the 
spring equinox) of our Gods (Elohim), and to comfort all that 
mourn ; all' that mourn in Zion (winter) ; to give them beauty 
(summer) for ashes (winter); oil for mourning ; the garment of 
praise (the crops) for the spirit of heaviness (winter), that they 
(the months) may be called trees of righteousness (summer), 
planted by the Lord for his glorification (v. 3). 

The old wastes and desolations shall be repaired; strangers 
(the constellations just out of the winter hemisphere) shall feed 
your flocks, plough your lands and dress your vines. But ye 

* Having examined this phrase, Adoni-jahveh, as I have met with it thus far, most 
attentively. I have come to the conclusion that "the Lord of heaven " is the correct trans- 
lation in this place (see Gen. xix, 24; FuersVs Heb. Lex., p. 552). 



574 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

shall be named the priests (months) of the Lord (summer), and 
the ministers of our Gods (Elohim) ; ye shall eat of the riches 
of the nations, and boast in their glory. For the shame you 
suffered last winter you shall soon reap double joy. For I, the 
Lord, love judgment (spring) and hate robbery (winter). Thus 
I (the Earth) will greatly rejoice, since the Lord hath clothed 
me with the garments of salvation (the crops). For as the 
earth brings forth bud and fruit, so will the Lord of heaven 
(Adoni-jahveh) cause righteousness and praise to spring forth 
before all the nations (goi?n, the word usually translated gen- 
tiles). 

Chap. lxii. I will not stop at Zion (winter solstice), but 
will go on to Jerusalem (summer solstice). The nations shall 
see the Earth's crops, and kings its glory (v. 2). The Earth 
shall no more be called Forsaken, or Desolate, but it shall be 
called Hephzi-bah (my delight is in her=summer), and thy land 
Beulah (married, i. e., crop-bearing). For as a young man 
marries a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee (sons marry 
mothers') ; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride, so 
shall thy Gods (Elohim=Ram-Suns) rejoice over thee, i. e., the 
Earth will produce its crops while the Sun and Aries are in the 
summer hemisphere (v. 5). For summer don't end (keep 
silence) until the crop is grown, when it shows for itself (v. 6). 
The Lord hath sworn, i. e., he had divided summer into seven 
parts, or months, which are on his right hand. During this 
time he will not give corn to his enemies^ winter, but will 
grow it for them. Still they that gather it shall eat it ; and 
they that make wine shall drink it. 

Therefore, ye summer constellations, go through, go through 
the gates (the spring equinox), come up, come up, cast your- 
selves upon the high way (the summer half of the zodiac) ; lift 
up the standard of Judah for the people, for the Lord hath 
proclaimed unto the end of the world (year) : Say ye to the 
daughter of Zion (summer), thy salvation cometh, etc. They 
(the summer constellations) shall be called the holy people ; 
and the Earth shall be called " Sough t-ont, A city not forsaken." 

Chap, lxiii. Who is this that cometh from Edom (winter) 
with dyed garments (" sheepskins dyed red "), from Bozrah 



ISAIAH. 575 

i 

(the sheep-fold)? He that is decked in his apparel, traveling 
in his strength? Ah ! who is he, to be sure? Who but I, the 
Sun, who now occupy the summer hemisphere, and therefore 
speak in righteousness (the crops), being mighty to save? Why 
is my apparel red? Because, being at the spring equinox, 
early in the morning, I "tread the wine-press alone, in the red 
rays of the light ; none of the people (constellations) are with 
me, for I am exactly between two of them. But I will tread 
them down to the earth, i. e., I will ascend with the summer 
constellations into the upper hemisphere, and so cause the win- 
ter constellations to set, each being in turn thus slain, the first- 
born of Egypt first, of course. The early crops appearing now, 
begin to show the loving-kindness of the Lord, which will be 
continued into the house of Israel. Ah, they are my people, 
and w T on't lie (v. 8). 

But soon (after six months) these same summer constella- 
tions rebelled, i. e., went below the horizon in the west, and 
the Lord became their enemy and fought against (opposite to) 
them. Then he thought of Moses, that had aforetime brought 
them up out of the sea (Egypt) ; and with his uplifted right 
hand (see zodiac), led them through the deep, etc. When a 
beast (constellation) goes down into the valley (winter), the. 
spirit of the Lord causes him to rest (five months). Look 
down from heaven, O Lord; where, tell me, where is thy zeal 
and thy strength (heat)? Are they restrained? Doubtless 
thou art our Father, though Abraham (summer) be ignorant of 
us, and Israel acknowledge us not, i. e., it is not summer. 
O Lord (summer), thou art our Father ; our Redeemer ; thy 
name is from everlasting — from winter; i. e., thy name is 
summer. Oh, why didst thou make ns to err from thy ways, 
and cause winter to come? Why not have summer all the 
time? Thou didst never rule over winter — thy name is Sum- 
mer (v. 19). 

Chap. lxiv. It is now winter ; and oh, that thou (the Sun 
at the spring equinox) wouldst rend (divide) the heavens 
(summer) ! that thou wouldst come down (as at the destruction 
of Babel) and cause the melted snow to flow down from the 
mountains at the presence of thy heat ! Such terrible (and ter- 



576 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

rible they often are) things thou hast done before, on making 
the covenant (spring equinox), — see Ex. xxxiv, 10. For from 
the beginning (plain) of the world (year) none know what the 
harvests will be but the Gods (Elohim = the stars in Aries). 
To these the ancients attributed all knowledge. The moderns 
think the Earth knows just as much. In summer we rejoice, 
and work righteousness (produce a crop) ; i. e., those that re- 
member the fruits of this season. But oh, it is now winter, 
and thou art wroth, because of our sins. However, though 
now in winter (olam,, here translated " continuance "), we shall 
be saved. Summer, with its crops, will come. But now (win- 
ter) we are unclean — our righteousness (works) is like dirty 
rags — of no avail ; we fade as a leaf, and our sins (Sun's S. 
declination) have removed us from the summer hemisphere. 

But, Lord, we are the clay, and thou the potter, be not 
wroth long ; but work us into the proper shape soon ; for thy 
holy cities (summer months) are a wilderness, Zion (winter 
solstice) is a wilderness, Jerusalem (summer solstice) a desola- 
tion. Our holy (sunny) and beautiful house (summer) is 
burned with lire (the Sun), and the pleasant season is laid 
waste — is no more. Wilt thou turn thyself upon these (win- 
ter constellations) in the valley (winter)? Why afflict us thus? 

Chap. lxv. The Sun is sought by the summer constella- 
tions. They do not ask for him, but find him at the spring 
equinox. Before this finding, the Sun had spread himself be- 
fore the winter constellations, a very rebellious people, which 
walked in a way not good (winter). They provoked him con- 
tinually to his face (each in turn came in conjunction with 
him). They sacrifice in gardens (inclosed spaces), upon altars 
of brick, among the graves, and lodge in the monuments ; eat 
swine's flesh, etc. (all emblematical of winter). 

" Stand by thyself," says winter to summer, " for I am 
holier (sunnier) than thou. Thus have the inferior of all ages 
ever addressed the superior — stand aside, I am holier than 
thou ! But, says the Lord (summer), I will not keep silence 
(winter). I will repair during my spell, the evils you (winter) 
have done (v. 6), I will bring forth a seed (the crop) out of Ja- 
cob (spring), and out of Judah (the same) an inheritor (Israel 



ISAIAH. 577 

= summer) of my mountains (the four spring months), and 
Israel (the four summer months) shall dwell there (v. 9). 
Sharon (summer) shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of 
Achor (trouble— winter), a place for the herds to lie down in 
(v. 10). 

But ye, that forsake the Lord and prepare a table for Gad, 
•or God (Aries on his meridian),* and that furnish the drink 
offering (rainy season) unto Meni (Yenus in her inferior con- 
junction), ye shall all bow down to the slaughter; i. e., shall 
set and so be slain. My servants (summer constellations) shall 
eat, drink, and be merry, while ye (winter constellations) shall 
hunger, thirst, and be ashamed (v. 13). My servants shall 
sing for joy ; but ye shall cry and howl for sorrow and vexa- 
tion of spirit (v. 14). 

The Lord of Heaven (Adoni-jahveh) shall slay winter, 
which is a curse unto his chosen, and call his servants (his 
chosen) by another name (summer). If he bless himself, it 
shall be in the Gods (Elohi) of truth, and if he swear (seven), 
it shall be by the Gods (Elohi) of truth ; " because the former 
troubles (winter) are forgotten, and hidden from mine eyes " 
(v. 16). 

" For behold, I create new heavens (summer), and a new 
earth (winter) ; and the former (old year) shall not be remem- 
bered, nor come into mind" (v. 17). Therefore be ye glad and 
rejoice in the Jerusalem (summer), which I create, and I will 
rejoice with you (v. 19). From that time (spring equinox) " there 
shall no more be an infant of days, for the child shall die a 
hundred years old (at the end of summer) ; the old man shall 
till his hundred years at the end of winter, when the old sin- 
ner shall be accursed. During summer all that build houses 
shall dwell within them ; they that plant vines shall eat of the 
fruit thereof. None shall labor in vain, nor bring forth for 
trouble (winter). Before they call, I will answer, and while 
they are speaking, I will hear, i. e., the crops will grow while 
they are being cultivated. The wolf and the lion (foul weeds), 
and the lamb and the bullock (the cultivated plants) shall feed 

* The root of the word here rendered table means i4 to let go." The derivative noun 
would, therefore, mean the letting-go place=the meridian, or place of departure. 



578 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

together. " The lion shall eat straw, like the bullock," i. e. T 
both shall draw nourishment from the same soil. 

Chap. Ixvi. The heavens (summer) are my throne, and the 
earth (winter) my footstool, saith the Lord. But where is the 
house that ye are to build for me? Where is the place of my 
rest? It is, or will be, at the next summer solstice. AH these 
have mine hand made ; all these have been ; where are they 
now (winter)? In the past, of course, and also in the future. 
To this (Sun), even unto him that is poor and of a contrite 
spirit, i. e., is meek and low down in the winter hemisphere, 
like Moses, or Aquarius, and trembleth at my w r ord — turns 
the winter solstice — will I look (v. 2) ; lie will build my place 
of rest. 

He that killeth the ox (Taurus), is as if he slew a man 
(Orion) ; he that sacrificeth- a lamb (Aries), is as if he cut off a 
dog's neck (Canis major). These four constellations, Aries, 
Taurus, Orion and Canis major, all set together nearly ; hence 
the comparison. He (the Sun) that bringeth up a gift (any of 
the winter constellations) offereth up swine's blood (the Boar 
that killed Adonis, denoted winter); he that burnetii incense 
(pitch-wood to warm himself) blesseth an idol (fire was the 
symbol of the Sun). Yea, they have chosen their own ways 
(winter) and delight in their abominations (the plagues of 
Egypt, or winter). True, I called, yet none answered ; I 
spake, but none heard me ; therefore I, the Lord, was obliged 
to choose their delusions, but, remember, I will turn their own 
whelps (the w r ord translated " fears " means whelps) upon them ; 
for they did the evil before my eyes, and chose that (winter) in 
which I delighted not (v. 4). 

Now, ye summer constellations that tremble at his word, 
hear the word of the Lord (Jahveh). Your brethren (the win- 
ter constellations) that hated you, that cast you out for my 
name's (Adoni's) sake, said : "Let the Lord be glorified." But 
the Lord shall appear in the spring to your joy, and then they 
(the winter constellations) shall be ashamed (v. 5). 

The voice of spring is now heard, the voice by which the 
Lord (summer) recompenses his enemies (winter) ; for summer 
always supports winter (v. 6). Before she (summer, or the 



isaiah. 579 



Virgo of summer) travailed, i. e., before the crop grew, she 
brought forth the Sun at the winter solstice ! What a wonder! 
Who has ever heard of or seen the like? The Earth don't 
produce a crop in one day, but Zion (the winter solstice), as 
soon as she travailed, brought forth her children (the Sun and 
summer constellations). Shall I bring to the birth (winter 
solstice), and not cause spring to come, saith the Lord and thy 
Gods (Elohi) ? Of course not. Rejoice ye, then, with Jerusa- 
lem, and be glad in summer. Rejoice, for it is then ye may 
suck the breasts of her nourishment, and be delighted by their 
overflowings (v. 11). Ah ! I will comfort you as a mother 
comforts her child (v. 13). 

When you see this your heart will rejoice, for the Lord 
will favor his servants, and be indignant toward his enemies 
(v. 14). Behold the Lord (summer) will come with fire (the. 
Sun) and with his chariots (summer constellations), like a 
whirlwind (the spring monsoon) ; for it is thus he will plead 
with all flesh, slaying many (v. 16). They (the winter constel- 
lations) that sanctify and brighten themselves in the gardens 
(being day constellations) one by one in the midst (i. e., one by 
one coming to the fall equinox), eating swine's flesh, the un- 
clean thing, and the mouse,* shall be borne away together 
(below the equator), says the Lord (v. 17). 

I know their works and their thoughts, and when I shall 
gather all nations to see my glory (the crops), I will then set 
up a sign (the summer solstice) among them, and will send 
them that escape, or pass that sign, to Tarshish, to Pul and to 
Lud (southern hemisphere). At the same time, in going 
thither, they will bring up your brethren (the summer constel- 
lations) to my holy mount Jerusalem, as the children of Israel 
bring an offering (the crops) in a clean vessel (the renewed 
earth) into the house of the Lord. " I will take of them (the 
summer constellations) for priests and for Levites," i. e., I will 
take them separately, and collectively; in the first case, as 
'months ; in the second, as seasons. While the new heavens and 
the new earth remain before me, i. e., while summer lasts, your 
seed and your name shall remain. 

* The mouse being a nocturnal animal is thence a symbol of winter. 



580 THE SCIENCE OF THE 8LBLE. 

And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to 
another, and from one sabbath to another, i. e., every month 
and every year, all flesh shall fall down before me, saith the 
Lord (v. 23). And thenceforth they shall go and look upon 
the carcasses of the men (winter constellations) that have trans- 
gressed (passed over) against (opposite to) me ; for their worm 
(their half of the zodiac) shall not die, nor their fire (the Sun) 
be quenched ; but they (winter) shall be abhorred of all flesh. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

DANIEL — INTRODUCTION. 

IT is said, " nothing is known of the parentage of Daniel." 
This is doubtless true. Who wrote the book whch bears this 
name, is equally unknown. The meaning of the name, Daniel, 
even, is disputed. Some interpret it, " The Judge of God" 
but this is derogatory, and would make of God an inferior 
being. Others will have Daniel to mean, "God is my Judge" 
This latter (God = Aries, as I have all along shown) is beyond 
all doubt the true meaning of the name. 

The language of the book of Daniel is partly Aramaic, or 
Chaldee, and partly Hebrew ; a mixture which no single indi- 
vidual would be likely to employ. However, whether written 
by one, two, or a hundred different individuals, would make 
no difference as to the truths, or falsehoods, the book may con- 
tain. The former are no more invalidated, or rendered untrue, 
than the truths of Euclid's Elements of Geometry would be 
were they proven to be by an anonymous author. 

" The interpretation of Daniel has hitherto proved an 
inexhaustible field for the ingenuity of commentators, and the 
certain results are comparatively few " (Smith's Bib. Diet., 
Art. Daniel). 

Thus the commentaries on Daniel having been very numer- 
ous, as well as very voluminous, with such small results, my 
readers should be extremely chary as to their opinions on this 
book as a historical production. Time, with its researches, 
will, most likely, in the end, show that Daniel, and the work 
attributed to him, are nearly, if not wholly, mythical. 

With the above remarks, I pass to the book itself, believing 
that I shall exhume, not history, but the science of that day, 
from the mythological language in which it is enveloped. 



582 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

Chap. i. Daniel is, literally, the Ram is my Judge, i. e., 
Daniel is Aries during the year. 

In the third year (month) of Jehoiakim (exalted&\\\\=.&\ii\ 
at spring equinox), king of Judah (spring), came Nebuchad- 
nezzar (the Sun), king of Babylon (winter) unto, or opposite, 
Jerusalem (summer), and besieged it, i. e., the solstices seemed 
to coincide with the equinoxes (Adoni-Jahveh). The Lord 
(Adoni= winter Sun) gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into 
Nebuchadnezzar's hand, with part of the vessels (the four spring 
constellations) of the house of the Gods (Elohim= seven sum- 
mer months). These Nebuchadnezzar carried into the land of 
Shinar (winter) to the house of his Gods (Elohi). Nebuchad-" 
nezzar (the Sun) then spake to Ashpenaz (horse-nose=Sxm in 
Sagittarius), the master (first) of his eunuchs (the four barren 
winter months), that he should bring down certain of the chil- 
dren of Israel (the four summer months), particularly such as 
were without blemish, skillful in wisdom, etc. Ashpenaz pass- 
ing the Sun, brought in his captives. For these captives, the 
king provided food for three years (months), after which time 
they were brought before the king (v. 5). Now, among these 
w T ere of the children of Judah, Daniel (Aries), Hananiah (giv- 
ing-Sun=harvest in Taurus), Mishael (who is like Aries) and 
Azariah (help of the Sun), — the four months of spring. Ash- 
penaz {horse-nose— Sagittarius) changed the names of these to 
suit their changed circumstances, no doubt, into Belteshazzar * 
(he that collects stores — Aries setting, the ingathering is ended), 
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (the other three months of 
spring). But Daniel determined he would not defile himself 
by eating of the king's meat, or by drinking his wine, and so 
informed the chief of the eunuchs, Ashpenaz (v. 8). u Now 
the Gods (Elohim) had brought Daniel into special favor with 
this chief of the eunuchs" * (v. 9), but the latter, fearing for 
his own safety, reminded the former of the consequences which 
might ensue on his disobedience of the king's orders, should 
he be found in worse plight than he then was. Daniel desired 

* "This name has not been satisfactorily explained as yet" (Fuersfs Heb. Lex., p. 
207). To the eye it appears as if made up of Bel. a chief ; tut, to collect, and atser, treas- 
ure=one who collects stores for winter. 

* The eunuchs are the winter months, Sagittarius being the chief. 



DANIEL. 583 

Melzar (the cup-bearer = Aquarius) to prove him but for the 
days on " pulse to eat and water to drink " (v. 12). The result 
being satisfactory, the quaternion were allowed to continue 
tee-totalers ! The produce of the land in winter, under the 
curse of God (Gen. iii, 18), being " thorns and thistles," of 
course Daniel and his companions must resort to " pulse " 
(Zeroim= the crop, as grown from 20m = seed). Of this he 
had laid in a store, hence his name Belteshazzar, or Joseph. 

To these four children (spring months) the Gods (Elohim) 
had given knowledge, skill and wisdom, such as they gave to 
Solomon aforetime. But Daniel had understanding in all 
visions and dreams. This he practiced only during the winter, 
which is the night of the year. At the proper time, then, i. e., 
at the winter solstice, when he (Aries) is on his meridian, the 
eunuch brought them before Nebuchadnezzar (Sun at his win- 
ter tropic), who, communing with (he and Daniel being in 
quartile aspect) them, found none like Daniel, Hananiah, 
Mishael and Azariah. In all matters of wisdom and under- 
standing (they stood under the equator, or in the southern 
hemisphere) he found them ten times (there were ten plagues 
of Egypt) better than all his own magicians and astrologers. 
And Daniel continued unto the first year of king Cyrus. They 
were better, even ten times better, inasmuch as they, in con- 
junction with the Sun, produced the cereal grains. 

Chap. ii. In the second year (month = December) of his 
reign, Nebuchadnezzar (the winter Sun) " dreamed dreams," 
whereat he was greatly troubled. Notwithstanding he had for- 
gotten his dreams, he greatly desired to know, not only the 
dreams, but their import. For this purpose he summoned all 
the magicians, astrologers and Chaldeans before him to tell 
him what he had dreamed, and what his dreams foreboded. 
The king's command was accompanied by the promise of im- 
mense rewards to the astrologers, if successful, and also by the 
most frightful punishments in case of failure. The poor astrol- 
ogers were in a bad fix. However, they told the king of the 
unreasonableness of his demand ; that there was not a man on 
earth who could " show the king's matter" (v. 10) ; and that it 
was absurd to ask " such things at the hand of any magician, 



584 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

astrologer or Chaldean." At this the king grew furious (the 
cold increased), and ordered every wise man of Babylon (win- 
ter) to be slain. This decree, of course, included Daniel and 
"his fellows," then captives in Babylon. Daniel was some- 
what concerned, not only for himself, but for " his fellows." He, 
therefore, wisely returned to Arioch* (Sagittarius, see chap, i, 
3), " the captain of the king's guard," who was on his march 
to slay the wise men of Babylon (the constellations then above 
the horizon), and asked why the king was in such haste (v. 15). 
Give him a little time, and he would not only show the dreams, 
but the interpretation thereof also (v. 16). Daniel then con- 
sulted his fellows, desiring that they with him would seek the 
mercies of the God (Eloh) of heaven (summer) concerning this 
secret (the phenomena of the year), and so save themselves 
from perishing with the Babylonians (v. 18). " Then was the 
secret revealed in a night (mid-winter) vision, and Daniel 
blessed the God of heaven " — " Blessed," said he, " be the 
name of God for ever and ever " — from winter to winter, is 
the correct translation, i. e., blessed be the name of God dur- 
ing summer, for wisdom and might are his (v. 20). He 
changes the times and the seasons ; removes kings and sets up 
kings ; gives wisdom to the wise, etc. (v. 21). He knows 
what is in darkness (winter), though the light (summer) dwells 
with him, i. e., he knows the phenomena of the year = the 
king's secret (v. 22). Therefore Daniel praised the God (El ah 
=himself ) of his fathers, because he had made known to him 
the "king's secret" (v. 23). Having learned the dream and 
its interpretation, Daniel hasted to Arioch (the light, or 
spring equinox), " who brought him before the king (Sun in 
Aries) in haste," and said : I have found a man of the captives 
of Judah that will make known to the king the interpretation 
(v. 25). The king asked Daniel if it was so (v. 26). Daniel 
answered, assuring the king that though his wise men were un- 
able to find out the secret, there is a God (El ah) in heaven 
(Aries had just got there) that can reveal secrets, and that he 
will make known to Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter 

* Arioch is probably derived from the Hebrew aw, or or=liffht, and hvk=to go, a 
name applied to Sagittarius, since he "had gone forth" from the Sun, and hence rose 
heliacally with him, i. e., walked in the light, as the name Arioch seems to signify. 



DANIEL. 585 

days — the end of the year (v. 28). He would take no credit 
to himself because of his knowledge (v. 30). He would sim- 
ply say that in his dream the king saw a great image (the year) ; 
its head was of line gold (this was himself = the Sun) ; its breasts 
and arms, of silver (spring) ; its belly and thighs, of brass (sum- 
mer) ; its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay (winter). Be- 
sides this image of the year, he saw " a stone cut out without 
hands." This (the equinox of spring) smote the image upon 
its feet (the end of the year) and broke them in pieces. Then 
were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken 
to pieces together, and become like chaff, etc., i. e., the year 
passed away ; and the stone (Beth-el) that smote the image 
(the year), became a great mountain (the mountain of God, or 
the spring equinox) and filled the whole earth (v. 35). 

Having heard the dream and its interpretation, the king- 
fell upon his face and bowed for Daniel, i. e., the } 7 ear ended 
(Sun in Aries). He, at the same time, ordered an oblation of 
sweet odors (the flowers of spring) to be offered to him (v. 46). 
Of a truth, said Nebuchadnezzar, your God is a God of Gods 
{Elah-Elohiin), i. e., he is Aries at the spring equinox, and a 
Lord {Mara) of kings (v. 47). So Nebuchadnezzar made 
Daniel a great man, and gave him rule over all Babylon, i. e., 
winter passed and summer came. At the request of Daniel, 
the king set Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the affairs 
of Babylon ; but Daniel sat in the king's gate (the spring 
equinox).* 

Chap. iii. Nebuchadnezzar, or the Sun coming to the 
spring equinox, now made and set up an image of gold, whose 
hight was sixty cubits. Taking each cubit as equal to two 
degrees of latitude, the hight of the image was 120 degrees, or 
one-third of a great circle, or one-third (the winter third) of the 
year. The six cubits may reasonably be supposed to refer to 
the width of the zodiac, since this is differently stated by 
different authors. This image, be it noted, Nebuchadnezzar 
set up in the plain of Dura [a circle), in the province of 
Babylon (winter). This image, then, denoted winter (v. 1). 

* Daniel (Aries) being in the king's gate, or the Sun in Aries, Shadrach (Taurus), 
Meshach (Gemini) and Abed-nego (Cancer) would be over the affairs of Babylon, or in the 
east half of the lower hemisphere. 



.586 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

This done, notice was duly given, by heralds, that whoso 
fell not down at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, etc. (the 
music of spring, or the confusion of Babel), and worshiped 
Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, should, in that same hour, be 
cast into a burning fiery furnace (the summer hemisphere). 
Wherefore, u all the people, the nations and languages, 1 ' in 
obedience to this order, except a few Jews (these four spring 
constellations), fell down and worshiped Nebuchadnezzar's 
golden image. Certain Chaldeans accused these Jews of dis- 
regarding the king's order (v. 12). The king's "rage and 
fury" were aroused, and he immediately ordered Shadrach, 
Meshach and Abed-nego before him. On being asked if the 
accusation was true, if they really had refused to fall down 
and worship the image the king had set up, the trio very 
ingenuously confessed : " We are not careful to answer thee in 
this matter " (v. 16) ; and we will state further, " Whether our 
God be able to deliver ns from the burning fiery furnace w T ith 
which thou hast threatened us, or not, that we will not serve 
thy Gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set 
up" (v. 18). Whew! this was too much; Nebuchadnezzar, 
full of fury and with changed visage (winter into summer Sun), 
commanded that they heat the furnace " one seven times " 
(one seven months) more than it had been heated (during the 
past winter), i. e., that the next seven months should be sum- 
mer (v. 19). Then the most mighty men (winter constella- 
tions) of Nebuchadnezzar's army were commanded to bind 
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and cast them bound into 
the midst of the burning fiery furnace (summer). The king's 
command being urgent and the furnace (summer Sun) exceed- 
ing hot, the name slew the men (the winter constellations) 
that took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, i. e., the 
winter constellations set and w r ere slain, while the summer 
constellations rose in the east. The four spring constellations 
following, came successively in conjunction with the Sun, 
and hence walked in the midst of the burning fiery furnace — 
the Sun. 

Nebuchadnezzar " was astonied," called to his counselors 
and asked: "Did not we cast these men bound into the midst 



DANIEL. 587 

of the fire?" Being answered in the affirmative, he replied: 
" Lo, I see four men (the four spring constellations) loose, walk- 
ing in the midst of the fire (the Sun), and they have no hurt, 
and the form of the fourth is like the son of God " (the Savior 
— v. 25). Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to (not up to, but 
near to) the door (by which Noah entered his ark) of the burn- 
ing fiery furnace (the summer months), and calling to Shadrach, 
Meshach and Abed-nego, said, " Come forth and come hither." 
They did so, i. e., winter came on. On examination "these 
men " were found to be unhurt (v. 27). Then spake Nebuchad- 
nezzar, and said : " Blessed be the Gods of Shadrach, Meshach 
and Abed-negp," i. e., I hope they (the spring months) have 
brought us a good harvest (v. 28). Hence, by a decree, Nebu- 
chadnezzar made it unlawful to speak amiss of the Gods of 
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, and attached thereunto a 
severe penalty, for it was thus found that no other God (Elah) 
could "deliver after this sort," i. e. spring alone could produce 
the grain harvest. " So the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach. 
and Abed-nego in the province of Babylon" (winter), the 
same as Pharaoh promoted Joseph in Egypt (Gen. xli, 40). 

Chap. iv. Nebuchadnezzar (the winter Sun) is now at 
home, i. e., it is winter. Being anxious to show the signs and 
wonders which the high God (Aries) had wrought toward him, 
Nebuchadnezzar, as he lay upon his bed, troubled in his head, 
as too many are now-a-days, had a dream (v. 5). He dreamed 
he saw a tree, a very high tree (the zodiac = the tree Yggdrasil 
of the Norse mythology), in the midst of the Earth. This 
tree (the year) grew and became strong, its height reaching to 
heaven (summer). The leaves were fair, and the fruit much, 
furnishing "meat for all." The beasts of the field got in its 
shade, the birds of heaven dwelt among its branches ; all flesh 
was fed of it. A holy one (the Sun) came down from heaven 
(summer) and said : Hew down the tree, cut off its branches, 
shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit (the products of sum- 
mer). But leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even 
with a band of iron and brass (symbols of winter), and also 
the roots of the grass to be renewed in the spring. Then let 
his (the Earth's) heart be changed from man's (winter), and let 



588 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

a beast's heart (summer) be given to him, and let seven times 
(months) pass over him ; let the grass be wet with the dew of 
heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field. 
Thus was this metamorphosis of Nebuchadnezzar to be the 
same as that of Saul (1 Sam. x, 6), for both were the same. 

Such was the dream (of the year) Nebuchadnezzar com- 
municated to Daniel for his interpretation. Daniel " was 
astonied for one hour" (in the Hebrew, one moment), and his 
thoughts troubled him, i. e., Aries was on his meridian, with 
the Sun at his winter solstice. Nebuchadnezzar begged him 
not to be troubled either by the dream or its interpretation. 
Daniel, no way cast down, assured the king that the dream 
and its interpretation were in favor of his enemies ; that the 
tree was himself; that he had grown so large as to reach to 
heaven (summer) on the one side, and to the end of the earth 
(of the year, or to spring) on the other, and that his enemies 
would drive him from men (from winter into summer), make 
him eat grass as oxen, and wet him with the dew of heaven 
for seven times (months), whence he would learn that the Most 
High ruled in the kingdom of men (v. 25). " The stump of 
the tree roots was left to assure him of his kingdom (winter), 
after he had learnt that the heavens do rule." " Now, O king, 
break off thy sins by righteousness, and thy iniquities by show- 
ing mercy to the poor," i. e., leave the winter hemisphere, em- 
brace the summer, and raise a crop ; this will remedy thy error. 

All happened, as related in the following verses, as Daniel 
had predicted, he being a most truthful and faithful prophet. 
Afterward, "at the end of twelve months" Nebuchadnezzar 
walked in his palace of the kingdom of Babylon (v. 29). How- 
ever, he was kept out to grass until his hair w r as like Eagles' 
feathers, and his nails like birds' claws, i. e., until the time of 
the ingathering, when the constellations called the Eagle, the 
Swan and the Vulture, or the Lyre, set in the west. Hence, 
too, we have the reason why Swans sing sweetest when about 
to die — it was the season of wine-making ; the time, too, when 
Noah got drunk, etc. 

Chap. v. Belshazzar {Fire-prince = the Sun) made a great 
feast — that of the Passover. The golden vessels (the Sun, 



DAK1EL. 589 

Moon and summer constellations) were brought in, i. e., came 
to the spring equinox, and the king and his princes, his wives 
and concubines " drank in them," not out of, or from them (it 
was the time of the latter rain). They also drank wine (four 
cups, — see Bib. Diet., Art. Pass.), and praised the Gods of 
gold and of silver, of brass, etc. (v. 4). Of course ; for, being 
in their cups, they were in a condition to praise or blame any- 
thing. However, while drinking and praising Gods worthy of 
praise, there suddenly " came lingers of a man's hand, and 
wrote over against the candlestick upon the wall of the king's 
palace ; and the king saw the part, of the hand that wrote " (v. 
5). Now let us look at this riddle a little. 

The name of the Hebrew letter answering to our J, is yod 
—hand in English. This letter J, being the initial of the 
Hebrew |-flpp = Jahveh, or Lord = spring, was used as its 
abbreviation. It was the hand of the Lord, then, or the begin- 
ning of spring, that wrote upon the wall of the king's palace. 
The ancient spring, as I have often indicated, contained four 
months. The hand has four lingers, the thumb being folded 
within it out of sight, as is often represented in Christian 
iconography. The hand was also often indicated by a circle 

containing three commas and the sacred Tait, thus, nM . The 

spring, therefore, then at hand, was symbolized by the J, jod, 
or hand, which has four fingers, as the spring had four months. 
The tetragrammaton, or sacred word, has four letters ; and 
the same thing was doubtless typified in the four cups of 
wine. It is right to say, however, that Buxtorf, jr., affirms 
that the sacred name, Jahveh, properly resolves itself into but 
three letters, J. H. V.=he who was, is, and is to come = the 
three seasons of the year. Here, doubtless, the hand had 
reference to the passing of winter and the return of spring. 
Hence the king's (Sun's) countenance was changed at the sight 
of the hand-writing, like Nebuchadnezzar's (iii, 19), and also 
like Saul's, when he became another man (1 Sam. x, 6). 

The hand-writing upon the wall (zodiac) opposite the can- 
dlestick (winter) frightened the king, Belshazzar, as well it 
might, for in it his doom was foretold. He, therefore, called 



590 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

his astrologers and the wise men of Babylon to interpret it, 
promising that whoever shall read and tell its meaning shall 
be clothed w T ith scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his 
neck, and be the third in the kingdom (v. 7). However, the 
king's wise men couldn't even read, much more interpret, the 
handwriting — winter couldn't be summer. Whereat the king 
was greatly troubled, and his " brightness" changed (v. 9). The 
queen now happened to come into the banqueting house (Yirgo 
setting). She soon perceived from the change in the king's 
countenance that he was badly scared. She reassured him, 
saying: Don't be troubled, nor let thy countenance be thus 
changed, for there is a man in the kingdom who has an excel- 
lent spirit (wind) in him. His name is Daniel (the Ram is 
judge), and he will quickly show thee what this ominous writing 
upon the wall means. So Daniel was brought before the king 
(Sun in Aries). The king remarked to Daniel that he had 
heard of him before ; that he had much knowledge ; could 
dissolve doubts, make interpretations, etc., and concluded by 
offering to reward him handsomely if he would read and inter- 
pret the hand-writing upon the wall (v. 16). Daniel told the 
king to give his gifts to himself, and his fee to another, and he 
would read the writing, and make known to the king the in- 
terpretation thereof, without fee or reward (v. 17). Daniel was 
right ; for the honest are not to be bribed, although they well 
know their pay will come in the end. So with Daniel, who 
recounted the glory and majesty which the Most High God 
had bestowed upon his father, Nebuchadnezzar, and yet, be- 
cause of his pride, he was obliged to depose him, and send him 
out to grass seven months with the beasts of the field. 

Belshazzar had followed in the footsteps of his father, and, 
therefore, it became necessary that he, too, should be humbled. 
Hence, the hand-writing upon the wall opposite the candlestick 
(winter), was to forewarn him of his doom. 

"And this is the writing that was written : MENE, MENE, 
TEKEL UPHARSIN * (v. 25), i. e., numbered, numbered. 

* "Paresin" (Dan. v, 25) is from "peras" (Ges. Heb. Lex., p. 867). It is sometimes 
written "Perasia" (f=ee Strabo, B. xii, chap, ii, sec. 7). "Pera$ia' n is from ii P , Ares ,, ' = 
Aries (Fabei\ Cabiri. vol. i, p. 168). This last — Aries — was ever the divider of the year* 
The word peres, translated li Persia," as a verb, signifies " to part" or " to divide into two 



DANIEL. 591 

weighed and divided. The interpretation next follows : MENE, 
God (Aries) hath numbered thy kingdom (winter), and finished 
it. TEKEL, thou art weighed in the balances (Libra opposite 
Aries) and art found wanting, i. e., winter is gone, and the 
year ended. PERES, thy kingdom (winter) is divided, and 
given to the Medes and Persians (summer). Peres not only 
signifies a divider, but also a kind of eagle, and may have 
reference to the constellation so named, which comes to its 
zenith as the Sun enters Aries. 

Thus, the writing having been read and interpreted, the 
king ordered Daniel to be clothed with scarlet (Ram-skins dyed 
red := the aurora of spring), to have a gold chain about his neck 
(Sun in Aries), and to be made the third ruler in the kingdom, 
i. e., the Earth being the first, the Sun next, and Daniel, or 
Aries, " the third " and most distant. In that night (the very 
night in which the first-born of Egypt was slain, — Ex. xii, 29) 
was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans (the dividers), slain. 
Darius, the Mede (the Sun at the spring equinox), took the 
kingdom. The name Darius literally signifies " the Savior, or 
Preserver." This personage (says Dr. Smith, 0. T. Hist., p. 
619) is one of the enigmas of sacred history. Let me add, he 
is not the only enigma of sacred history by a long way, as my 
reader has had many opportunities of seeing. 

Chap. vi. King Darius (the Sun and Savior) set one hun- 
dred and twenty princes (the number of degrees in the third of 
a circle) over the kingdom (of Babylon?); and over these three 
presidents, Daniel (Aries) was placed that the king should 
have no damage. Indeed Daniel was preferred above the 
presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit (the spring 
monsoon) was in him. In short the king thought to set him 
over the whole realm (year with the ancients, Aries was always 
the Dux gregis, or leader of the flock). Being thus installed 
as the great chief over all, the presidents and princes (the four 
winter months) sought an occasion against Daniel concerning 

parts " (see ParkhursV s Heb. Lex., p. 593), and is often translated in this sense in the Bible* 
Thus, in this very chapter (v. 28) it is so rendered. The almost innumerable instances in 
which the translators of King James' version have falsified the original are yet to be dis- 
covered. The public little know the extent of the imposition that has been practiced 
upon them by theologians. 



592 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the kingdom, but no fault or error could be found in him (v. 
4). They must, therefore, attack his religion (v. 5). This is 
the usual resort of the bad against the virtuous and the good, 
such as Daniel certainly was, and it is indeed a terrible weapon 
of offense in such matters. The presidents and princes went 
straight to the king, and said, King Darius, " live forever." 
This, of course, would attract the king's attention, and put 
him in the proper mood. Now let there be established a royal 
statute, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God, or 
man, save of thee, for thirty days, shall be cast into the den of 
lions. This was sufficiently flattering to the king, and the 
decree was enacted. Poor Daniel, they now supposed, was 
completely entrapped. However, though aware of the law, 
Daniel wholly disregarded it, for he worshiped as before, three 
times daily, his windows being open toward Jerusalem (sum- 
mer solstice, from which he was daily departing). Narrowly 
watched, as he was, for the days were growing shorter, Daniel 
was at last detected at the fall equinox, where the night 
becomes longer than the day, and was, by the king's order, 
thrown into the lions' den (the winter hemisphere), and a stone 
(the stone eben-ezer) was placed over its mouth (v. 17). Poor 
Daniel ; his enemies had triumphed over him, and he was, as 
they thought, done for. The king, Darius, w T as now in great 
affliction (Sun in the winter hemisphere). He rolled (for this 
is the meaning of the Hebrew) to his palace (winter solstice), 
fasted, for winter is barren, but couldn't sleep (the Sun never 
sleeps). His concubines were not suffered to come before him, 
i. e., the Sun and Virgo don't come in conjunction in winter 
(see Ges. TIeh. Lex., p. 220). "Instruments of music" is an 
euphemism for the sexual congress, because music usually puts 
the mind in the proper condition for such enjoyment. Hence 
women and music were kept from the king at this time of his 
great affliction. Having passed the night (winter), the king 
rose very early in the morning (spring) and went to the mouth 
of the den of lions. In a lamentable voice the king called, for 
it was spring: O Daniel, servant of the living or summer 
God, is thy God able to deliver thee from the lions ? Daniel 
answered : O king (Sun), live forever ! My God has shut the 



DANIEL. 593 

lions' mouths, and they haven't hurt me. The king was 
wonderful glad, and his face brightened up — the Sun shone 
brighter. So he ordered Daniel up out of the lions' den (win- 
ter hemisphere). No hurt was found upon him, because he 
carried (for this is the primary meaning of the word translated 
" believed ") his God, i. e., he was in himself God. Here 
Daniel being God, and, as such, the leader of the celestial host, 
or twelve constellations, or of the year, must survive to the 
end of the year. And it will be seen (Rev. v) that though the 
Lion (constellation Leo), prevailed to open the book of the 
seven seals, or seven summer months, the Lamb (Aries= 
Daniel) actually opened it (Rev. vi), as he does here. This 
Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, and these horns and eyes 
are the seven spirits of the Gods (Elohim). So Daniel survived 
his terrible ordeal ; but how fared his enemies ? Let us see. 
They were the four winter months, the one hundred and twenty 
princes, or degrees, or the one third of a circle, or year. They 
were all, with their wives and children, cast into the lions' den 
(winter) after Daniel got out of it (see the Zodiac). But oh, 
how different their fate ! The lions (cold days of winter) got 
the mastery of them, " and brake all their bones in pieces or 
ever they came to the bottom of the den " — the end of the 
winter! So perish the enemies of good. 

Darius (the Sun) now proclaimed peace (summer) " to all 
people, nations and languages in all the earth," only a small 
part of which being then known. However, it must be all 
right, as the ignorant always know more than the enlightened, 
and are hence always over positive. Moreover, the king de- 
creed that men should fear and tremble before the living or 
summer God of Daniel ; thus Daniel prospered in the reign of 
Darius, i. e., during summer, and also in the reign of Cyrus, 
the Persian, or during the same period = summer. 

Note, — a den is a place to which animals resort for shelter 
and other purposes. The lion is a nocturnal animal ; and hence 
winter, the night of the year, is aptly styled the den of Leo, or 
the Lion of the Zodiac. Leo comes to his meridian in April, 
and may then be seen overhead in the evening. Being opposite 
Aquarius, he was thus associated with that constellation, and 
38 



594 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

took the form of the Man-lion. This was particularly the 
case with the Hindus. Vishnu, who reposed " four months " 
(Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 23), they say, " became a lion in 
order to destroy certain giants (the four winter months) who 
were seeking to dethrone the gods" ( Wheeler's India, vol. in, 
p. 369). 

Chap. vii. " In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel saw a 
dream in the night" (winter). Belshazzar was, as we have 
seen, the winter Sun, winter being the night of the year, when 
Daniel (Aries) comes to his meridian. The four winds answer 
to the four cardinal points, as also the li four great beasts," or 
the cherubim. The time being about the winter solstice, when 
the Lion would be seen to rise in the evening, as the Sun sets 
in Aquarius. This lion-like beast, or Man-lion, had eagle's 
wings, and may be seen pictured in Bonomi's Nineveh, p. 251, 
and in other books. Daniel looked at this beast (Leo) until 
the Eagle's wings were plucked, i. e., until the Eagle rose, and 
" was lifted up from the earth ; when, lo, a second beast (Scor- 
pio), like to a Bear (Ursa major ; on the meridian in April, 
and hence the comparison), raised itself on one side," i. e., on 
the south side of the equator, where Scorpio rises as a para- 
natellon of the Eagle. The three ribs constitute its symbol, 
or sign n\,, shown by three downward strokes, connected at the 
top like the letter m. The devouring of much flesh is char- 
acteristic of winter, which begins when the Sun enters Scorpio. 

The third " great beast," which Daniel thought, or imag- 
ined, he saw, was like a leopard, or better, tiger, since the root 
of the original word means to stripe. This third beast, then, 
refers to summer, beginning at the summer solstice, when the 
Sun rises and sets in Cancer, and Aquarius rises soon after sun- 
set. The leopard, tiger and lion are natives of the hot cli- 
mates, and hence properly typify summer, whose sky is usually 
overspread with small clouds, scattered here and there like the 
spots on a leopard. Hence Indra, the Indian Jupiter and the 
Hebrew Lord,- is represented sitting upon a leopard or tiger's 
skin. 

This beast had upon its hack, the four wings (winds) of a 
fowl (" what flies, floats "=the atmosphere during the year r 



DANIEL. 595 

see Fuersfs Heb. Lex., p. 1027), and also four heads (the four 
quarters of the year). "Dominion was given to it" (v. 6). 
" The law,' 1 it will be remembered, was promulgated from 
Mount Sinai, or the summer solstice. 

After this third beast, Daniel saw in his night visions a 
fourth beast, dreadful and strong. It had great iron teeth (the 
three months between the winter solstice and spring equinox), 
and it devoured, brake in pieces and stamped the residue — 
the residue of what? Why of the year, of course. It differed 
from all the other beasts and had "ten horns." Why ten 
horns? Because, as the perfect number, it denoted the com- 
pleted year. From among these " ten horns" there came up a 
" little horn." This little horn was the beginning of the new 
year. Before this little horn, three of the first horns were 
plucked up by the roots, i. e., the first three zodiacal constella- 
tions — Aries, Taurus and Gemini — had passed their meridian 
and were making their way to the east. In this little horn, 
answering to the man's head of the almanac, " were eyes like 
the eyes of a man." Of course; besides, the east w T as always 
the horoscope of the astrologists. It also, i. e., this little horn, 
for it was a very curious little horn, had a mouth speaking 
great things. I shouldn't wonder if it was the spring, which 
usually promises a crop, — the same as the renewed covenant 
and promise of the Lord to Abraham (Gen. xvii, 2). 

After this retrospective view of the four quarters of the 
year, in the order of the cardinal points, Daniel continued his 
vision forward from the spring equinox, until the thrones (the 
summer constellations) were all cast down, and the "Ancient of 
days " (Aries) also with them. This last (Aries) had a garment 
white like snow, and the hair of his head was like wool. The 
reason is obvious. His throne (exaltation) was at the spring 
equinox ; his wheels, the Sun (v. 18). The Sun was before 
him, i. e., in some of the winter constellations, and thousands 
(of stars) ministered unto him and stood before him. At last 
the judgment was set, and the books (summer) were opened, 
and the voice (little horn) spake. Daniel looked until the 
beast (winter) was slain (v. 11), when, behold, one like the 
Son (Sun) of man (Earth) came with the clouds of heaven to 



596 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before them 
(v. 14, Mat. xxvi, 64). "Unto him (Sun in Aries) was given 
dominion and glory and a kingdom " for the benefit of all 
people. This dominion is an everlasting one, i. e., it will last 
until the following winter (v. 14). Daniel was so grieved and 
troubled in his head, that he lost his faculty of interpretation. 
So he asked one that stood by him (the Sun), who acquainted 
him with the meaning of his dream (v. 16). This we have 
seen above. A short recapitulation, however, will not be out 
of place : 

1. The four beasts are the four cardinal points, or the four 
quarters of the year. 

2. The Most High is Aries in his zenith in summer. 

3. The ten horns were the year. 

4. The little horn was the new year. 

5. The three, that fell down, were Aries, Taurus and 
Gemini, past their meridian. 

6. The Ancient of days is Aries. 

7. The fourth beast was the last quarter of the year, was 
represented by Aquarius and extended to the spring equinox — 
the end of the year. 

This last was a very savage beast, for he trod down the 
earth, and brake it in pieces, i. e., the year ended with him. 
He spake against, or opposite to, the Most High (Aries in his 
zenith), and the saints (summer constellations) were given into 
his hand "until a time and times and the dividing of time," 
i. e., until spring, when Daniel's countenance was changed 
(v. 28). 

Though the number ten belongs to God, and the number 
nine to men (Philo. Jud., vol. ii, p. 176), the Man-lion was 
often figured with but six, to denote the six months intervening 
between Aquarius and Leo, — see King's Gnostics, p. 200. 

Chap. viii. In the third year (month) of the reign of Bel- 
shazzar, Daniel saw another vision. This time he was at 
Shushan, in the palace (winter solstice, where he had often been 
before), in the judgment-seat (not province) of Elam (hidings 
winter), by the river Ulai (two turnings = solstitial colure= 
here, the winter tropic). Before this river Daniel saw a Ram 



DAKIEL. 597 

(Aries on his meridian), which had two horns (lie would 
have had more had they been necessary to the legend). 
These two horns were high, but one was higher than the 
other, and the higher came up last (v. 3). The celestial globe 
shows that Daniel was right. Well, this Ram (Aries), having 
risen, pushed westward, and northward, and southward, i. e., 
Aries rising on the spring equinox, first pushes westward, then 
northward to his zenith, and thence southward toward the op- 
posite or winter tropic, coining to his meridian at this tropic 
(v. 4). No beast could stand before him, for he was the leader 
of the flock=the dux gregis. Daniel considered, and while 
thus, the zodiacal {circling, in the Hebrew) Goat came up (in 
the east) from the west (all the stars must come from the west 
before they can rise in the east) on the face of the whole earth, 
and touched not the ground (for he was in the sky above). 

This Goat had "a horn of sight" (Sun in Capricorn), a 
curious kind of horn, between his eyes. Of course this seeing 
ho? 7 n had one eye (the Sun) at the least (v. 5). He came to 
the Ram (Aries) that had two horns, and ran into him in the 
fury of his power (Sun in Capricorn ; Aries on his meridian ; 
the two being in quartile aspect). The Goat being very mad 
at the Ram, pitched into him and broke both his horns. The 
poor Ram being in the winter half of the year, and out of his 
element, was powerless, and could not stand before the Goat. 
So the Goat threw the Ram upon the ground (Aries as a night 
constellation), and stamped upon him (winter overcame sum- 
mer — Cain slew Abel). Poor Ram = poor summer. So the 
Goat became great at the Ram's expense ; but, behold ! just as 
he had become great he got his horn broken (Sun in his south- 
ern tropic). This was bad for the Goat, but all must have 
their ups and downs. However, in place of the great horn, 
there came up four others=the four cardinal points (v. 8). 
Out of one of these a little horn came up, and waxed great. 
It pushed, first toward the south, then east, and lastly toward 
the pleasant land (summer). This was the exact course of the 
Sun in the winter hemisphere (v. 9). It finally reached the 
pleasant land (heaven = summer), when it threw down some of 
the stars (the opposed constellations) to the ground and stamped 



598 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

upon them (v. 10). He (it) now magnified himself against the 
chief of the host, i. e., the summer constellations got above 
the equator, while the winter constellations went below it. 
This continued until the truth (summer, as opposed to lies= 
winter) was cast down to the ground — until summer ended. 
Thus the little horn practiced and prospered, for what is to be 
done must be done (xi, 36). Daniel now heard one saint (con- 
stellation) ask another how long this " making desolate " (win- 
ter) would last (v. 13). The answer was 2,300 day s= the dura- 
tion of winter, or = the time when the conjunction of the Sun 
and Moon would take place in the same degree of the ecliptic ; 
the 2,300 days being one-third of the nineteen tropical revolu- 
tions of the Sun nearly, and so put for the winter third of the 
year. 

The vision seen, Daniel " sought for the meaning," when, 
behold, there stood before him, " as the appearance of a man " 
(v. 15). Daniel now heard a voice between the Ulai (the two 
tropics, Ulai being dual in form, — "Banks " is an interpola- 
tion), i. e., at the spring equinox. The voice told Gabriel 
(Man-Ram) to explain the vision to Daniel. So when Gabriel 
came near, Daniel fell upon his face to the ground (Aries sets 
head foremost). Gabriel told Daniel " the vision would be at 
the time of the end," i. e., at the spring equinox. Daniel then 
fell into a deep sleep, as Adam did before him, and, of course, 
heard all that was said. Soon Gabriel (the Man-Ram) touched 
him and set him upright (Aries rises head first), and said : " I 
will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the in- 
dignation " (winter), for when the end of the year comes, then 
the new year will begin, and here is the vision ! 

The balance of the chapter is mainly explained above. A 
few additional remarks may not be out of place, however. 
The two horns are the kings of Media (middle) and Persia 
(the dividing = the spring equinox). The rough Goat is the 
king of Javan=juvenis= youthful = the new year. He is the 
Capricorn of the zodiac, where the Sun is rejuvenated every 
year. The great horn between his eyes is the first king, i. e., 
is the Sun, the center of the solar system. This broken, or 
divided up, four kings (the four cardinal points) stood up for, 



DANIEL. 599 

or in the place of, it, but not in its power, i. e., a part is not 
equal to the whole (v. 22). Later, when the transgressors are 
come to the fall, i. e., when summer has fully passed away, a king 
(the winter Sun) of fierce countenance, who understands dark 
sentences, shall stand up, i. e., winter will come (v. 23). His 
power shall be mighty, but not of itself (the Earth will have 
something to do with it), and he will destroy the holy people 
(summer). 

This rough Goat (Capricorn), on meeting the Sun at the 
winter solstice, enlarges his heart — the days become longer. 
He also casts down many (of the summer constellations). After 
which, he will "stand up" (sea-phrase) over the prince of the 
princes (the Sun), but he shall be snatched away without hand 
(Job xxxiv, 20), i. e., the Sun will pass his southern tropic 
(v. 25). This winter vision is true (v. 26). Poor Daniel was 
now " done up," i. e., Aries was on his meridian, and sick cer- 
tain days; afterward, he rose up and did the king's business 
(Sun in Aries), he being the third ruler in the kingdom (see 
ante). Though Daniel " was astonished, none understood the 
vision ;" nor do they yet. 

Chap. ix. The writer here sets out from the spring equinox, 
for Darius, being a Mede (middle), is the Savior, or Sun, of 
spring. This is the meaning of the name. He is also king of 
the Chaldeans (the days between winter and summer). Thus, 
in the first year of Darius' reign, Daniel (the Ram is my 
judge) learned by, or from, the books the number of years 
whereby the word of the Lord (Jahveh) came to Jeremiah 
(exalted Sun) the prophet ; that he (Jeremiah) should fill out, or 
accomplish, 70 years (7 months) in the drynesses and desola- 
tions of Jerusalem, i. e., that Jeremiah, or the summer Sun, 
should pass over the summer portion of the Sun's ecliptic. 
Whence it was that Daniel set his face toward the Lord 
(Adoni)of the Gods (ha-Elohim), i. e., he went into the winter 
hemisphere. Daniel sought Adoni (the winter Sun) by prayer 
(falling down), fasting, sackcloth and ashes, i. e., by going into 
the winter half of the year. Thus, having confessed, or kept 
company with the Lord of his Gods (Jahveh-Elohi) during 
summer, he addressed the great and dreadful God (i£7), and 



600 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

said : We have sinned and committed iniquity, in getting down 
here (v. 5). We didn't hearken to thy servants, the prophets 
(the pleasant days of spring) ; we gave them the slip, and, there- 
fore, we are here. O Lord (O Adonic O Sun), to thee is the 
brightness,* but unto us is shame of the faces, as at this day, 
to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to 
all Israel, wherever thou (O Adoni) hast driven them because 
of their trespass against thee (v. 7). O Lord (Adoni), to us 
belongs shame of the faces, to our kings, to our princes, and to 
our fathers, because we have sinned on thy account (v. 8). 
Just look at our situation : the earth bare and frozen, and the 
summer constellations, including me, Daniel, or Aries, in the 
night hemisphere, or away down in Egypt. Our position is 
one of shame. But the Lord (Adoni) of our Gods (Elohi) has 
the wombs, or hollows (winter), and the lifting up, and this 
because in him we rebelled (v. 9). We didn't obey the voice 
of the Lord (Jahveh) of our Gods (Elohi), i. e., summer went 
by, and all Israel passed over the equator; therefore, the curse 
(winter) is upon us (v. 11). All this evil came upon us accord- 
ing to the law of Moses. We entreated not the Lord (Jahveh) 
of our Gods (Elohi), that we might avoid our iniquities and 
keep out of winter (v. 13). The Lord (summer), passing away 
and leaving us, brought this evil upon us ; but the Lord (Sun) 
is bright, and shines all the year round. f We obeyed not his 
voice (v. 14). O Lord (Adoni), which brought thy people from 
the land of Egypt, and hast gotten a name, we have sinned 
and caused this disturbance (v. 15). 

O Adoni, as thou shinest continually, let thy nose and thy 
water-skin (Aquarius, the Sun's place) be turned away from 
Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, i. e., let summer come. We 
know that it was because of our sins that Jerusalem is 
now a reproach to all around us — that it is winter. Hear 
us, O our Gods (Elohi), and cause your faces to shine upon 
your sanctuary (Earth in summer), that is desolate, because it 
is winter. O my Ram-Sun (Elohi), hear, open thy eyes and see 
our desolations, and that of the holy city. We do not ask 

* The primary meaning of kadesh, here translated " righteousness," is, to be bright, to 
shine, as the Sun. 

t Astrologers assign no night-house to the Sun. 



DAXIEL. 60! 

thee on account of our superior shinings, but for thy mercies 
(the crops), — v. 18. O Adoni, hear; O Adoni, forgive: O 
Adoni, do listen, and defer not, even for thy own sake, to let 
this cursed winter pass away (v. 19). 

Thus did I speak, and while speaking and falling down, 
and casting myself and my people Israel before the Lord of 
my God ; for the holy (sunny) mountain of my God, even the 
man Gabriel (Man-Ram), whom I had seen in the vision, 
weary in flight, touched me at the evening resting place (win- 
ter solstice), and said : O Daniel, I will now give thee skill and 
understanding, i. e., standing under, for Aries was on his me- 
ridian (v. 22). Seventy weeks (seven months) will finish the 
transgression, or the time the Sun remains below the equator, 
counting according to custom the last month twice, and make 
the reconciliation (the spring equinox) and bring in righteous- 
ness, brightness or summer, which will continue until the 
following winter (v. 24). From the going forth of the com- 
mandment (from the -winter solstice) to restore and rebuild 
Jerusalem (summer), unto the coming of the Messiah (spring 
Sun) shall be sixty-nine weeks (the one week mentioned in v. 
27, will make the seventy). This seventy weeks, or winter, 
passed, the Messiah or summer will come. Another seventy 
weeks (seven months, as before) passed, and the Messiah will 
be cut off, but not for himself, i. e., summer will end. The 
city and the sanctuary (summer) destroyed, a flood (the rainy 
season) will come, with the desolations of the season (v. 26). 
After this, the (spring) will be confirmed for one week=ihe 
passover feast. 

Chap. x. " In the third year of Cyrus," — Cyrus is the 
Persian word for Sun, — the name is traced to the Hindu 
Surya, the Sun, — Cyrus (the Sun) was king of Persia, the 
eastern or spring equinox. As the ancients had years of vary- 
ing length (see Sir G. C. Lewis' Hist, of Anc. Ast., p. 30), 
the third year of Cyrus may have meant the third season, or 
winter. This would explain why Daniel mourned " three full 
weeks," i. e., the three months from the winter solstice to the 
spring equinox. During this time he ate no " bread of desire " 
(marginal reading), i. e., he ate no passover or unleavened 



602 THE SCIENCE OE THE BIBLE. 

bread. He tasted neither flesh nor wine, nor did he " anoint " 
himself until the end of the " three full weeks " (v. 3), i. e., he 
didn't come to the spring equinox until the end of the u three 
full weeks." Coming thither, he would eat unleavened bread, 
drink four cups of wine, and anoint himself with the holy 
ghost, or spring monsoon. In fact he would be inaugurated, 
or rather reinaugurated. as the judging Ram of summer, or of 
the year. 

On the 24th of the first month Nisan, Daniel, in imag- 
ination, stood beside the great river Hiddekel, or Tigris. This 
name meaning an arrow, the symbol of the north, pointed 
him to his zenith at the summer solstice. Looking up, he be- 
held " a certain man " (Gabriel, the Earth in spring) clothed in 
linen (the emblem of purity, or of the Earth during summer). 
The loins of this man were girded with fine gold of Uphaz, or 
Opher. The loins of the Man (see frontispiece in the almanac) 
refer to the month September, when the ingathering took 
place. " His body was like the beryl." The twelve stones 
(the beryl was one of them), set in four rows on the priest's 
breastplate, " describe for us the circle of the zodiac " (see 
Clem. Alex., vol. ii, p. 244), i. e., they by their qualities de- 
scribe the phenomena of the year. The beryl, to which the 
body of the man is compared, is of a greenish color, and hence 
denotes the forepart of the season, when the growth of the vege- 
tation is most rapid ; and this corresponds to the body of the 
Man (see almanac). The face, eyes, arms and feet, the body 
included, of course, answer to the year. So also of his voice 
(v. 6). Daniel alone saw this vision. The men that were 
with him being terrified, fled and hid themselves, i. e., the 
year being ended, Daniel (Aries) was on his meridian, and 
alone. Of course he was weak, for his vigor was turned into 
deadliness (v. 8). Though in a deep sleep (mid-winter), with his 
face toward the ground, Daniel heard his (the voice's) words 
(v. 9). A hand (Gabriel's=the Earth) touched him and 
brought him upon all fours (v. 10), and told him to " stand 
upon his standing." So Daniel stood tremblings Aries on 
his meridian (v. 11). Gabriel told him not to fear, as from 
the first day (after the winter solstice) when he began to give 



DANIEL. (303 

heed to, and to report himself before his God (Sun in Aries), 
his words were heard (v. 12). But the prince (Sun) of the 
kingdom of Persia (the last days of the year, and hence the 
" snatchers" — see Fuersfs Heb. Lex., p. 1154) withstood him 
twenty-one days, the half of forty-two, the number of days in 
Lent. Persia seems to be the Lent of almost every nation. It 
also appears to be the Mount Ida of the Grecians and Romans, 
and the Mount of Olives of the Christians. 

But Michael (who is like a Ram), the West, which is oppo- 
site the East, or Gabriel, came to his aid (the East and the 
West always help each other, as also the North and the South). 
Daniel remained with the kings of Persia, i. e., in the East (v. 
13). He said he had come to acquaint him with what shall 
befall his people in the last days (of the year) ; for there were 
yet many days. At this Daniel set his face toward the ground 
(winter) and became dumb=the silence of winter (v. 15). 
Gabriel touched his lips, when Daniel exclaimed : O my Lord 
(Adoni), I am sorrowful and without strength (v. 16) ; for how 
can thy servant talk 'with this my Lord (Adoni), and retain 
his strength and breath, or life (v. 17)? Gabriel touched him 
again, and he seemed to gain strength, i. e., the days began to 
lengthen (v. 18). So Gabriel kept touching him, saying: "Be 
strong, be strong," and Daniel became strong (v. 19). ISTow, 
says Gabriel to Daniel, I will return to fight with (not 
against, but as an ally, with) the prince (Sun) of Persia (the 
East), — Sun in Aries ; and when I am gone, says Gabriel, the 
prince of Grecia shall come, i. e., winter will follow summer 
(v. 20). 

The word here translated Grecia, is javan, which is closely 
related to the Greek fw^ lav, Iaveq, or the youth Ganymede, 
the Iwvaq, Janus, Jonas, or Jonah of the whale story; all hav- 
ing reference to the new-born Sun. Grecia has the opposite 
meaning, that of " the old?' or ancient, hence the common 
translation is bad — false. Javan also means " mud, dung, 
svjamp," thus pointing to the rainy season, or winter. Other 
definitions are given having the same import. Again, javan 
is the root of the proper name Jonah, of whale notoriety. It 
is also a name for the dove, a bird of passage, i. e., a bird which 



604 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

follows the Sun in his annual round, whence it (the name 
dove) was transferred to the Sun. 

Gabriel assured Daniel that it was noted in the scriptures 
of truth, that none strengthen him but himself and Michael. 
This duad of angels was, doubtless, made up of the two sol- 
stices, which, apparently revolving with the Sun, coincide in 
the spring with the two equinoxes. 

Chap. xi. In the first year of Darius (the Savior), the Mede 
(the equinoctial Sun), Daniel stood to strengthen and confirm 
him, i. e., the Sun was in Aries. Daniel now began to show 
the truth (emeth=tke phenomena of summer). Three kings 
(seasons) shall stand (rise) up in Persia (the East). A fourth, 
a richer and mightier king (the last quarter of the year), shall 
rule according to his will. This was Pluto, the god of plenty 
of the Grecians and Romans, and the Joseph of the Hebrews. 
This fourth and mighty one was also called the He-goat (viii, 
5), which had a notable horn (perhaps the horn of plenty) 
between his eyes. "And when he shall stand up," i. e., when 
the Sun leaves Capricorn, or the winter solstice, his kingdom 
(the year) shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven = 
the cardinal points. The king of the South, one of his 
princes, shall strengthen above, or over him, and he shall rule 
strongly with a great rule (Moses with his rod = Aquarius). 
At the end of the year, i. e., at the spring equinox, the two 
(the Sun and Aries) shall join themselves together, and the 
daughter of the South king (Virgo in winter) shall meet the 
king of the North (Yirgo setting as the Sun rises in spring). 
Neither shall she (Yirgo) nor he (the Sun) stand still, but they 
(summer) shall pass away (v. 6). A branch (the Sun leaving 
Yirgo) shall stand up in his (the summer Sun's) place, and 
enter the winter hemisphere. So shall the king of the South 
come into his kingdom and prevail (v. 7). He shall also carry 
their Gods (Elohim), their princes and their gold and silver 
(Sun and Moon) captive into Egypt (winter). Thus shall the 
king of the South come into his own land (v. 9). The king 
(Sun) of the South shall come forth and fight with the king 
(Sun) of the North (v. 11). Putting aside the multitude, i. e., 
the zodiacal constellations, one by one, he will lift up his heart 



DANIEL. 605 

income to his northern tropic), and thus cast down multitudes 
(not ten thousands as in the English text, but multitudes), i. e., 
the opposite and setting constellations, yet he shall not 
strengthen himself — winter will pass away (v. 12). For the 
king (Sun) of the North will return with a greater multitude 
(the seven summer months) after certain times, i. e., at the end 
of the five winter months, with great riches, or the crops (v. 
13). Many will thence " stand up " (sea phrase) against the 
king (Sun) of the South ; even the sons (summer months) ol 
the robbers (winter months) of thy people (summer months) 
shall exalt themselves (v. 14). So the king (Sun) of the North 
shall come and cast up a mount (summer solstice) against which 
the arms of the south shall not withstand (v. 15). But he that 
cometh with (not against) him shall do according to his own 
will, and stand in the glorious land (summer), which he will 
consume by his own hand (v. 16). He (the summer Sun) will 
next set his face to enter the strength of his whole kingdom 
(the end of summer and at the ingathering). He (the summer 
Sun) will give him (the winter Sun) the daughter of women 
(Yirgo) "to corrupt" (see marginal reading), but she will not 
stand on his side, nor be for him (v. 17). Having corrupted 
" the daughter of women " (Sun in Yirgo), he (the Sun) will 
turn his face unto the isles (winter months) ; toward the fort 
(winter solstice) of his own land, where he will be lost — will 
end his south declination (v. 19). "A raiser of taxes" (the 
lengthening days) shall succeed him, but he, too, in after days 
shall be destroyed, though not in anger or in battle (v. 20). 
The despised one, the Savior, shall stand up in his place, and 
though they refuse him the kingdom, he shall come in peace- 
ably and take it by flatteries (the promising crops). A flood 
(the latter rain) shall then come on, and interfere with the 
prince of the covenant (the equinoctial Sun). After the league 
(covenant), he (Christ, or the Sun) shall work deceitfully ; for 
he (the Sun) shall come up and produce a crop from the seed 
(v. 23). Entering peaceably upon the richest districts, he will 
scatter among them the various riches, or the crops (v. 24). 
Thus he will gather power and heart against the king (Sun) of 
the south — against winter, this latter being excited to come 



606 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

up to battle. However, he will not succeed, since provision 
was made against him (v. 25). 

They (winter) which feed of his meat (summer's crop) 
shall destroy him — the Savior or summer (v. 26). Then shall 
both these kings (merged in the winter's Sun) speak lies (Sun's 
S. declination) at one table ; but it (what it f why, the table or 
winter) shall not prosper, i. e., being cursed, winter shall pro- 
duce only " thorns and thistles " (v. 27). Then shall he (the 
northern Sun) return into his own land (summer), bringing with 
him great riches=the crops, which ripen at the "appointed 
time" (v. 28). "At the appointed time" (summer solstice) 
he shall return toward the south, but not as the former (the 
north Sim) or as the latter (or south king or Sun). If not as 
either north or south, what then? Why, the equinoctial Sun, 
of course (v. 29). This is confirmed by the succeeding verse : 
For the ships (Argo navis, or Noah's ark) of Chittim, or 
Hittim (dread = winter), shall come (rise) up (not against but) 
with him (the equinoctial Sun), i. e., Argo navis will rise with 
the Sun in Libra, as usual (see celestial globe). Therefore, he 
(the equinoctial Sun) shall be aggrieved, and return and make 
acquaintance with the forsakers (winter constellations) of the 
holy covenant (v. 30). 

Thence, i. e., from the fall equinox, his strength shall 
shorten the days down to the winter solstice, and the Earth 
shall be made desolate (v. 31). Such as depart from the cov- 
enant shall be desecrated by "smooth things" (ice), but the 
people that know their Gods (Elohim) shall be strong and 
prosper = summer (v. 32). The learned (summer) shall instruct 
many, yet they (the learned) shall fall by the sword (the Sun), 
fire and captivity = winter (v. 33). Having fallen (to the win- 
ter solstice), " they shall be holpen with a little help " (the in- 
crement of the lengthening days), and the king (Sun) of the 
South, acting his own pleasure, shall exalt himself above every 
God {El— Aries in winter), and shall speak wonders against 
the God {El) of Gods {Elohim). Thus, the winter Sun shall 
prosper till the indignation (w T inter) is passed (v. 36). He (the 
winter Sun) shall not regard the Gods (Elohim) of his fathers, 
nor desire women — for Aries and Yirgo are summer constella- 



DANIEL. 607 

tions ; but he will magnify himself over all, i. e., he will be- 
come the summer Sun (v. 37). Still, in his own place he shall 
respect the Gods (Elohim) of force, (summer), and load them 
with gold, silver and precious stones (Sun, Moon and Stars). 
Thus, by passing from his strongholds into the upper hemis- 
phere, he shall acknowledge strange (or summer) Gods(Elohim), 
and cause them to rule over many ; having divided the land 
(at the spring equinox) for gain (the crops), — v. 39. At the 
end of the year, i. e., at the spring equinox, the king of the 
South shall push himself at the king of the North, and meet 
him in a whirlwind (the changing monsoon), with chariots and 
horsemen and many ships (Noah's ark). He shall overflow 
(the latter rain), pass over and enter into countries, and shall 
come into the goodly land (summer). At the same time many 
countries (the winter months) shall be overthrown ; and these 
countries, even Edom, Moab, etc. (winter), shall escape out of 
his hand (v. 41). Egypt, however, shall not escape, for he shall 
have power over the gold, silver, etc., and he shall " spoil 
Egypt ; " but the Libyans (the light summer) and the Ethio- 
pians (the dark winter) shall be at his steps, i. e., the spring 
will come (Sun in Aries). Tidings from the east and north 
trouble him (the winter Sun), for by them he learns his doom 
— his change from the winter into the summer Sun; hence he 
goes forth with fury, and makes away many - — the winter 
months (v. 44). He plants his tabernacle or tent between the 
seas (at the spring equinox) in the glorious holy mountain 
(spring), but his career, as the summer Sun, will again end with 
winter, and none can help him. 

Chap. xii. Michael (Aries rising as the Sun sets) shall 
"stand up," and there shall be a time of trouble (winter); at 
the same time the children of Israel, every one that shall be 
found written in the book * (Leo and Yirgo in the summer 
hemisphere) shall be delivered, i. e., shall come above the 
equator (v. 1). And many slumbering in the earth's dust (win- 
ter) shall awake ; these (Leo and Yirgo) to a long life (sum- 
mer), and those (the slumbering ones) to shame and contempt 
(winter). And they that be wise and turn to righteousness, 

* The book of life = summer. 



608 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

i. e., they that rise as night constellations, shall shine as the 
stars in the firmament (v. 3). 

But Oh, Daniel, shut up the words (the days), and seal the 
book (of the Gods =Elohim= summer) at the time of its end. 
Thereafter many shall turn aside into the winter, when knowl- 
edge shall be increased, as at the fall of Man = the Earth (v. 5). 
So Daniel looked, and behold there stood other two, one on 
each bank of the river (spring equinox). The one (the man- 
in-linen = summer), on being asked how long " these wonders" 
(the phenomena of the year) would last, lifted up, first his 
right hand (summer), and then his left hand (winter), and 
sware (sevened) by him that liveth forever, or during the seven 
summer months, or until winter, i. e., he swore by the Lord or 
summer, that it should last for a pair, pairs and half a pair * 
i. e., until winter. This accomplished, he would, with his left 
hand, scatter the power of the holy people (v. 7). Winter 
coming on, Daniel heard something, but understood it not. So 
he exclaimed: O my Lord (Adoni=Sun in winter), what 
shall be the end of these? Adoni said: Go thy way, Daniel 
(Aries), for the words are closed up and sealed (frozen) until 
the time of the end=spring, the end of winter, and also of the 
year (v. 9). Some will be called and chosen, i. e., made 'white 
and bright (summer constellations), while "the wicked shall 
do wickedly ; and none of the wicked shall understand, i. e., 
the winter constellations shall pass into the upper hemisphere; 
but the wise shall understand, i. e., shall have their place 
below the equator at the spring equinox (v. 10). From the 
time that the daily decrement of the shortening days shall be 
taken away, and the casting-down (not abomination), which 
makes the earth desolate, to the setting-up (spring equinox) 
there shall be 1,290 days; 516 for each of the two whole 
months and 258 for the half month — two and a half months 
being the half of the five winter months (v. 11). But blessed 
is he that waiteth 1,335 days, for then the harvest will begin 
(v. 12). But go thy way, Daniel, for thou shalt rest and stand 
in thy own lot at the end of days, i. e., at the spring equinox. 

* In the seven summer months, there are one pair, two pairs, and half a pair of 
months; beginning at the two extremes, and ending with the middle month, or keystone 
of this royal arch of seven degrees. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
JONAH. 

THE story of Jonah and the whale, or of " Jonah swallow- 
ing the whale," as it is derisively styled, is, taken literally, 
the most absurd legend in the whole Bible, having always 
excited the mirth and ridicule of the most intelligent men and 
women. It is the great " Fish story," to which people often 
refer in order to express their incredulity. No one knows 
what it means ; no one cares what it means ; and hence it is 
but little thought of by the common people. The clergy 
affect to believe it, because it is one of their canonical books. 
Were it outside their canon, and only to be found in the 
Koran, or other records termed pagan, they would be the first 
to scout at and ridicule it. As it is, they are obliged to make 
the best of it. So they swallow Jonah, whale and all. Nor 
is their ability to do this to be doubted in the least, since, as 
all history attests, the priesthood has even been, from time 
immemorial, in the habit of swallowing whole nations at will. 

The book of Jonah, the reader will observe, consists of two 
parts, and each of these, of two chapters, being complete in 
itself. But who or what was Jonah? The word itself signifies 
a dove, a bird which passes to the south with the Sim in the 
fall, and returns with him in the following spring. The two 
keeping company, as it were, during the year. The name was 
hence transferred to the Sun, and so Jonah became a name for 
the Sun. He was the son of Amittai, i. e., he was the son of 
truth = summers the winter Sun. 

The Lord (summer) told Jonah (the Sun) to get up (to the 

summer solstice) and go to Nineveh (Fish-house = Pisces, hence 

the house of Dagon, or of the Fish, this constellation being at 

first represented by a single fish, and is the last of the twelve 

39 



610 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

constellations). Jonah, therefore, fled, as he must necessarily 
do, from the presence of the Lord, or summer, to go to Tarshish 
(hardness= winter). He went first to Joppa (the pleasant place 
= autumn, where the ingathering takes place). " Joppa," says 
Fuerst (Heb. Lex., p. 590), " was a maritime city on the Medi- 
terranean Sea, at the border of Dan," or Scorpio, or winter. 

At Joppa, Jonah found a ship (Argo rises in September, as 
we have already seen). So he got into the ship at the precise 
time that Noah got into his ark, and started to go to Tarshish 
(mid- winter), for he was anxious to get out from the presence 
of the Lord, or out of summer into winter. But the Lord sent 
a great wind (the moonsoon) which wrought upon the sea, and 
there was a mighty tempest. The poor sailors were badly 
scared, for, as a class, sailors are remarkably superstitious, and 
everyone of them prayed to his Gods (Elohim). Jonah, in the 
meanwhile, careless fellow, was fast asleep (Adam's sleep) in 
the bottom of the ship (mid-winter). The captain went to 
him, awoke him, and told him to go to praying with the rest 
of them. But, as is ever the case in times of the greatest 
danger, praying didn't do. So they cast lots to find out which 
among them was the cause of the tempest. The lot fell, as all 
knew it would, upon poor Jonah. On being interrogated, 
Jonah ingenuously confessed that he was the cause of all the 
muss. Instead of throwing him at once into the sea, as he 
richly deserved, and as rational men would have done, the 
poor sailors worked hard to bring the ship to land. Finding 
their efforts vain, and having first prayed to the Lord, i. e., 
having got opposite the summer solstice, or at mid-winter, 
they cast Jonah overboard, and the sea at once became calm — - 
winter solstice. 

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up 
Jonah, i. e., the summer having passed, Cetus, or the Whale 
(see celestial globe), had set in the west, mouth upward, to 
receive Jonah, or the Sun, when thrown overboard. So Jonah, 
the whale having swallowed him, was in the whale's belly, or 
in the belly of hell, three days and three nights, i. e., three 
months, the time Moses' mother was able to hide him, from 
mid- winter to the spring equinox. 



JONAH. 611 

Chap. ii. Jonah now prayed unto the Lord out of the fish's 
belly, i. e., he got down opposite the summer solstice in the 
midst of the sea (mid-winter), and out of the sight of the Lord, 
or summer. Yet, notwithstanding the waters (the rain) com- 
passed him about,, he would again look toward the holy tem- 
ple, i. e., passing his southern tropic he would again " stand 
up" toward spring. So with the waters (rain) about him, 
Jonah went down to the " cuttings off" (see marginal reading) 
of the mountains, i. e., he made his greatest south declination. 
The Earth with its bars was hidden from him, i. e., the lower 
ends of the colures (docked tails) were hidden from his view. 
No matter, the Lord (summer) would bring him up from cor- 
ruption, from the ." slimy pit," Sheol, or hell, and preserve his 
life, i. e., winter would pass away. When Jonah fainted (v. 7), 
i. e., when the summer became the winter Sun, he remembered 
the Lord, and his prayer was unto the holy temple. He also 
had observed lying vanities (winter), and thus forsook his own 
mercy (summer). But now he would sacrifice (make holy) 
unto the Lord, i. e., he would come back into the summer 
hemisphere, with the voice of thanksgiving=the crops. So 
he vowed, and would pay his vow, saying : " Salvation is of 
the Lord," i. e., summer with its crops saves the animal world. 
In due time, the Lord (summer, which begins with spring) spake 
unto the fish, and it vomited Jonah, or the Sun, out upon 
the dry land, i. e., the spring came, when, Cetus rising mouth 
downward, the Sun rolled out of his mouth and entered the 
next sign (Taurus), when the waters dried from off the earth, 
which then became fit for cultivation (see Gen. viii, 14). Thus 
ends Jonah's first circuit. 

Chap. iii. Here the word of the Lord appeared again, or 
the second time, to Jonah, and told him to get up and go to 
Nineveh (Fish-city), and declare against it as he was bid. So 
Jonah rose up from the winter solstice, and went to Nineveh. 
Now Nineveh was a great city extending unto the Gods (Elo- 
him*) three days' (months') journey. Having entered the city 
a day's (month's) journey, Jonah cried out : Yet forty days 

* Here is another big cheat of the translators. The word Elohim is wholly sup- 
pressed, as, if translated, the reader might possibly get a glimpse at the truth, which 
must not be told. 



612 THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

and Nineveh shall be overthrown, i. e., winter will then end. 
The people believing the Gods (Elohim), proclaimed a fast (the 
forty days of Lent), and put on sackcloth, or winter clothing. 
The king following suit, not only put on sackcloth, but sat in 
ashes=the remains of the year. All, man and beast, were for- 
bidden -to eat or drink (food was becoming scarce). All turned 
from their evil way, hoping that the Gods {Elohim) would 
turn with them, and so none perish, but all be saved. The 
Gods (Elohim), seeing their works, that they had turned from 
their evil way — had turned their winter tropic, changed their 
purpose, and did it not, i. e., the evil with which they had 
threatened the poor Ninevites. 

Chap. iv. At this Jonah was greatly displeased, and got 
very angry, or warm, i. e., his face brightened up (v. 1). So 
he rolled himself (yithj)allel) unto the Lord, or summer, and 
said : O Lord, did I not speak my own word, or language, in 
my own land? Therefore, i. e., to speak for myself, I formerly 
fled to Tarshish (winter) ; for I knew that thou wert a 
gracious God (El-hannuri), and merciful (through the crops), 
slow to anger (summer is longer than winter), and of great 
mercy (productiveness), and art always sorry over evil^win- 
ter. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, i. e., let 
winter and the year end ; for it is better that I (winter) should 
die than live ! The Lord asked : Is thy anger good? i. e., dost 
thou shine well? So Jonah went out of the city (winter), and 
sat down on its eastern side (spring). Here he made him a 
booth, or tent, and sat in its shade (the winter constellations in 
the day hemisphere), looking to see what might become of the 
city (v. 5). Now the Lord of the Gods (Jahveh Elohim) had 
prepared a gourd (kikion = the five winter constellations, as 
each passed successively in conjunction with the Sun (Jonah) 
from the lower into the upper hemisphere), that it might shade 
his head, and assuage his grief. This Jonah was very glad of. 
But the Gods (Elohim) prepared a worm (time) which smote 
the gourd the next day at sunrise (spring equinox), and it 
dried up, i. e., winter ended (v. 7). Then, i. e.. the next morn- 
ing, as the Sun rose, the Gods (Elohim) brought a silent east 
wind, i. e., the monsoon changing, the east wind became silent y 



JONAH. 613 

i. e., ceased, and the gentle zephyrs came up, when the summer 
heat so beat upon poor Jonah's head, that he again wished 
himself dead. The Gods (Elohim) asked him if it was well to 
get angry because of the gourd? Jonah thought it was, and 
that he ought to die. The Lord thought in his turn that, if 
Jonah had pity for the gourd, which came up in the night 
(winter), and perished with the night, much more ought he to 
have pity for six score thousand persons, that didn't know their 
right hand from, their left hand, besides much cattle, i. e., being 
at the spring equinox, they didn't know summer from winter. 
So Jonah died according to his wish. He was buried in Gaih- 
hepher (water-tub flatter rain of spring), in Judah. 

Thus the two parts of the book of Jonah are parallels, and 
describe in separate ways the jame phenomena of the year. 

Reader, you have now arrived at the end of my work. 
You may ask, why I have passed some books unnoticed, as 
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc. I answer : First, I hadn't room for 
them; and Second, that I have already given you enough — 
perhaps you will say, more than enough — to enable you to 
judge as to the character of the whole Bible. 

However, I will just add here, that Ezekiel contains an 
account of the strong Ram, or Aries during summer, and also 
of his captivity, or Aries during winter. Jeremiah is literally 
the elevated, or su?nmer, Sun. The Lamentations of Jeremiah 
describe the depressed, or winter, Sun. He is the same as 
David with Saul after him. Should time be afforded me, I 
may go through the New Testament in like manner, thus 
showing that it, too, is a work of mythology, containing no 
history, except as incidentally. 



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